


Frosnir Hjortu

by elarielf



Category: Frozen (2013), Thor (Movies)
Genre: But Talking Things Out is Better, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Feelings but no Couples, Gen, Growth Through Projection, Ice is Nice, Wordcount: 30.000-50.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-02-27 12:50:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2693627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elarielf/pseuds/elarielf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just before his coming-of-age ceremony, Loki is told of his Frost Giant heritage and, unable to cope, flees to Midgard where he meets Elsa, a Queen-to-be about his own age with even more issues around her ice powers. Able to hide on Midgard in relative comfort, Loki offers to tutor Elsa in her powers until the hilariously tragic events of her coronation.</p>
<p>Things hit close to home as Elsa fears being labled a monster and Loki can't hide from himself or Asgard any longer. But, in the end, Elsa isn't the sister who reflects Loki's problems most clearly. "Love conquers all" is perhaps simplistic, but it's not a bad place to start.</p>
<p>Also, Hans is a jerk, Kristoff is the reluctant voice of reason, and Thor is generally well-intentioned but tends to jump rather quickly to conclusions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Coming-of-age

The Wyrm’s head that Loki brought back from his coming-of-age hunt wasn’t quite as impressive as Thor’s Fire-Drake, but it was an honourable kill. He’d taken it down with a combination of magic, blades, and strategy, using some carefully balanced boulders over a ravine. It was why Loki was just bringing home the head, rather than the crushed useless corpse.

Still the fangs, as long as Loki was tall and thinner than a switch, would be useful in making weapons, and the tongue was considered a rare delicacy. Most of the scales were useless, but the ones around the eyes could be fashioned into multifaceted jewels and accents for dresses and formal wear. Loki had no interest in those, but the pockets of venom behind the fangs were useful for so many spells and enchantments. He’d request the venom sacs, give the fangs to Thor, the tongue to Odin, and the scales to Frigga. The rest of the head would be given to whoever requested it, as it would technically belong to all of Asgard at that point.

Loki had everything completely figured out, which was why the summons to his parents’ room didn’t faze him for a moment. Odin had arranged the traditional feast, and Loki assumed his parents wanted to offer him their blessings in private before the public celebrations. He couldn’t recall if Thor had been summoned before his feast, but it hardly mattered; as he kept having to remind everyone, he and Thor were very different people, with very different strengths and comparing them to each other was pointless. Sometimes he even had trouble remembering that, but mostly it was everyone else who spoke of Loki’s accomplishments only in the shadow of Thor’s.

That thought led to an uncomfortable one; perhaps his parents were remembering Thor’s coming-of-age ceremony, and the tributes that had been offered to him – gold, furs and silks, Mjölnir. Loki, as the second son, expected nothing of that scale, but a well-meaning (but always unintentionally hurtful) reassurance that just because Loki’s party would be smaller and less impressive, that his gifts would he fewer and less exotic, that the guests would be less enamoured of him, that just because Thor was universally loved by Asgard and the Nine Realms that Loki was no less loved by their parents, would put a damper on Loki’s generally good mood.

He took a deep breath at the doors to the royal chamber, bracing himself for the worst and repeating to himself that he was likely being pessimistic. This would probably be some formality of affection and nothing more. He pasted a smile on his face and walked in, bowing with theatrical flair to his father and scooping up his mother’s hand to bestow a kiss to her knuckles.

“Loki.” Frigga’s voice was gentle, with none of the usual subtle amusement she usually tried to hide at Loki’s antics. “Your father and I have something we need to tell you.”

Ah. It would be a lecture of sorts after all. Loki quickly filed through some of the pranks he had pulled over the past little while, and found nothing worth discussing before a feast. He’d been busy preparing for his coming-of-age test. He took a step back and watched his parents with guarded curiosity. “Yes?”

“We love you dearly,” Odin said, and Loki suppressed the urge to roll his eyes – they were preparing him for disappointment after all. “We’re very proud of you, and you will always have our support.”

“From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew you were someone I would adore with all my heart, someone I’d die to protect,” Frigga said, tears in her eyes.

Loki sighed and managed a smile. “Thank you both, but surely now that I’m officially a man, it’s my duty to die for you, mother.” Frigga let out a sob and clasped her hands over her mouth, suddenly overcome. Loki appreciated the honesty, although he felt this was all rather overblown, and turned his attention to his father as Odin patted Frigga’s arm comfortingly and drew himself up at his side, clearly about to get to the point.

“You are our son,” Odin said firmly. “In all but blood.” … _what?_ “It’s time that we told you, that you knew. You were not born of Frigga, nor sired by me. I found you on the battlefield, abandoned and crying, and took you in as my own.”

Loki stared at Odin, not quite understanding that. “I’m… someone else’s child? My parents were killed?”

Odin winced. “Not quite. Your father lives.”

“Then why take me in, if I still had family?” Loki asked numbly as his mind raced. He wasn’t Odin and Frigga’s child. He wasn’t Thor’s brother. Was he a prince, still, or would they take that away too?

“Your father is Laufey,” Odin said, and every other thought in Loki’s mind vanished as it tried to process that. “You are of Jötunheim, Loki, camouflaged by your natural ability to change forms. We’ve kept your heritage a secret from Asgard up until now so you could have a normal childhood. But you are now a man, and have the right to know your own blood.”

Loki didn’t really hear anything after Odin told him he was of Jötunheim. He was a Frost Giant. He was one of Asgard’s natural enemies, the monster hiding under beds and lurking outside darkened windows. He was the creature he had trained so hard to fight, who Thor swore to destroy, hated by all of Asgard, including Loki.

“It’s not true,” Loki muttered. This was a punishment, for dying Sif’s hair black, for making Thor think Mjölnir had gone missing, for that fiasco with the goat and the candlewax and Heimdall. Clever, to punish Loki with a hurtful prank that Loki himself might have thought up. “It’s a lie.”

“We wouldn’t lie,” Frigga said. “Not about this. Not when it tears us up inside to admit it.” She reached out. “You are our _son_. We love you.”

“You keep saying that,” Loki said numbly. “Who are you trying to convince?”

“Loki–”

“No,” Loki interrupted his father for the first time in his life. “No, either you’re lying now of you’ve lied to me my whole life. Why should I listen to you? Why should I believe anything you say?”

Odin reached out and stroked a finger up the back of Loki’s hand to his wrist. Loki watched as blue spread from his hand to his arm to his other hand, felt the room grow stiflingly warm, watched his mother’s eyes widen as he felt a spell that he’d never before noticed unravel, leaving him more bare than if he’d had no clothes on.

It was true, then. He was a Frost Giant.

He didn’t scream. He’d be proud of that fact later, but at the time his throat was simply too tight to make any sound. He stumbled backwards and out of this room, his vision blurring with tears and shock as he made his way back to his own quarters, to the safety of his room.

The room given to him by Odin and Frigga, who weren’t his parents. Could he even consider it his? With his Jötunn eyes, everything looked unfamiliar, and Loki realized he couldn’t stay here. Not in this room, not in this palace, not in Asgard. He took a few deep breaths and managed to get enough control to return to his disguised form, the green-eyed, black-haired, pale form he considered his own. He had to leave, and he had to leave now before Odin or Frigga or, Norns forbid, _Thor_ came looking for him.

Loki grabbed his hunting gear, still packed from his trip, and as calmly as he could, jumped from his window and raced towards the nearest inter-Realm pathway. He was most likely seen, but it would be far from the first time the second prince of Asgard had run off on his own, seeking other Realms and other amusements or fleeing angry brothers, friends, or enemies. It might have been considered odd that he would do so before his own coming-of-age feast, but he was generally considered odd to begin with.

And now he knew why.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Frigga felt her heart breaking as Odin ordered the servants to cancel the feast and distribute the food more subtly. He and Frigga would have to make their apologies to the higher-ranked nobles and dignitaries themselves, but that could wait until Frigga felt she could face other people again.

When Odin returned to her side, she immediately turned to him. “Are you sure we did the right thing?”

“What other choice did we have? Wait until he found out on his own and made his own assumptions?” Odin sighed. “This way at least when he found out about it, we reminded him that he’s our son, that we care for him, that we chose him. He’ll come back, he always does, and we can talk to him then.”

“What do we tell Thor?” Frigga asked. “Loki’s run off before, but there’s always been some reason, even if it was merely ennui. We were supposed to honour him tonight, and he’s not here. Thor will wonder why.”

Odin thought about it. He’d promised himself that he’d keep their secret until Loki was told, and technically Loki had been told. At some point, Thor would need to know.

“Let’s leave that up to Loki, once he returns,” Odin decided. “Until then, just tell Thor that Loki left and he’ll be back, as he always is, when he means to be back.”

Frigga sighed. “I don’t know if I can keep this up another week or two until Loki returns.”

“I’m sure you can. For him.”

And they did. For a week. And then another. And then a month. And then another. By the time three months had gone by, Thor was getting antsy and Frigga and Odin were more anxious than they wanted to admit. Loki hadn’t been in the best frame of mind when he’d left, and there was a great deal of trouble a single prince of Asgard could get into on his own out in the Nine Realms. Perhaps he even went to Jötunheim itself…

Frigga broke first, waking in the middle of the night from a non-prophetic nightmare about her youngest son. Odin grumbled something and rolled over, and Frigga decided that she couldn’t stand it any longer.

“I’m going to see Heimdall.”

Odin muttered something about being too old for this and followed her to the guardian’s observatory.

Heimdall was, as always, awake and aware. “Your Majesties.”

“Good Heimdall,” Frigga said, smiling. “I would ask you to cast your sight on my son.”

“Thor is–”

“My _other_ son.”

Heimdall was one of the few Asgardians who knew of Loki’s true origins. He sighed. “I have not set sight on him since he fled Asgard, three moons ago.”

“Then where is he?” Frigga demanded.

“Either he has found a way to cloak himself from my gaze,” Heimdall said. “Or he has left the Nine Realms completely.”

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

It was the first one. Loki had long been able to hide from Asgard’s guardian and his all-seeing gaze, albeit only for a few moments at a time. It took rather more energy that he cared to admit, but he was getting used to cloaking himself at all times to hide from those who might search for him. After the first few weeks, it had simply been that Loki had wanted to be left alone. After that, he wasn’t sure whether or not he would be in trouble for hiding for such a long time, especially when his parents… especially when the King and Queen of Asgard were clearly expecting an answer from him.

He didn’t have one. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the revelation that he was a Frost Giant, and Laufey’s son no less. He wasn’t sure how he felt about his parents, who he still loved and yearned to please, and yet who had lied to him his entire life. He wasn’t even sure how he felt about Thor. Did Thor know? Surely not, he’d never have tolerated Loki had he known. Still, others must know. Heimdall, who knew everything, Eir, who cared for the health of the royal family. Frigga’s handmaidens, Odin’s generals. How many people had looked at Loki and seen their enemy, the creature who killed their friends and loved ones, the monster Asgardians were born to fight against?

No, Loki didn’t have an answer for Frigga and Odin, even to the simple question of what he would call them. He also didn’t want to return to a place that already somewhat resented him to see if the truth would make them outright revile him. So he kept himself cloaked and distracted himself with visiting some of the other Realms with the knowledge that he was a Frost Giant in the forefront of his mind.

Muspelheim was just as uncomfortable as ever, hot and arid, and Loki was there just long enough to feel his stomach start to roil. But he did feel something of a kinship with the Realm, something he’d never noticed before, despite the discomfort. If he was truly Laufey’s son, he’d be more closely related to Surtur than to Thor. And that was an uncomfortable idea.

Alfaheim was unchanged, Loki was pleased to find, and just as welcoming and comforting as a Realm rich in magic and vibrant with life should be. He lingered in some of the forests and towns he’d rarely visited in disguise and rested there for a while, recovering from his short stint in Muspelheim and the realization that even somewhere as miserable and desolate as that fiery land could be more homelike than the Realm that had raised him from before infanthood.

Svartalfaheim was as deserted and dead as ever. Once a Realm not unlike Alfheim, it had been utterly destroyed in the battle between the Dark Elves and Bor, the Asgardian King Loki had once thought his grandfather. The Realm neither called to him nor repulsed him. It bored him, and Loki looked to the other Nine Realms for diversion.

Not Jötunheim. Loki wasn’t fool enough to want to visit there. Asgard was out, naturally, and Vanaheim as the Vanir were as close to Asgardians as they could get. Midgard, though… Loki had fond enough memories of that backwater Realm, filled with creatures who worshiped anything that seemed more powerful than themselves. He and Thor had almost been considered equals there, both gods in the eyes of the locals, both venerated for different things – Thor more openly than Loki, true, but Loki had his share of desperate prayers directed to him when Thor’s powers would have been useless.

They’d last visited Midgard not more than a century or three ago, and Loki was curious to see if the short-lived Midgardians had remembered him. He slipped through the hidden pathways and wound up in a deserted forest on the side of a mountain in the middle of winter.

He breathed in and relaxed. The air was fresh, with the subtle bite of woodfire smoke from the distance. Midgard hadn’t changed much, as far as Loki could see, and even if they’d forgotten him, he could always remind them. The magic in Midgard wasn’t as rich as in Asgard, or as vast as in Alfheim, but it was present, like a gentle flow all around Loki, caressing his senses gently, ignorable if he chose.

Save for one thing; a strong, sharp flare of power from the southwest, close enough that Loki was unsurprised that he could sense it, but clearer and more distinct that he’d have expected any Midgardian magic to be. The bite that came with the magical flare told him why – this magic was ice magic, and it called to Loki the way the other kinds of magic didn’t.

So. Midgard was ruined as well. Even here, in the least of all the Realms, Loki’s heritage followed him, mocking his ignorance. How had he never noticed before? Unless this magic wasn’t Midgardian. If a Frost Giant had made his way to Midgard and was practicing magic here, perhaps that was what was calling to Loki.

Curious, Loki followed the sensation of magic down out of the forest and past an ice-covered lake. Behind him, the sky lit up in greens and pinks, bright enough at their peak to cast shadows before Loki as he moved south along the lake’s edge, curving inland and into a clearing that rumbled faintly with repressed power, albeit not the ice magic that Loki had searched for.

There was a scent in the air as well, subtle and earthy, contrasting with the cold crisp winter air. Loki stood in the middle of the clearing and looked around at the spherical snow-covered stones that surrounded him. “Trolls.”

One of the stones flinched at Loki’s voice. Loki slipped a blade into his right hand and gathered latent magic in his left. Midgardian trolls were, as far as Loki remembered, smaller and less vicious than those of Asgard, but it never hurt to be prepared. “I am Loki Odins– of Asgard. Hiding from me will do you no good.”

A faint tremor when through the collective rocks and one of the larger ones rolled towards Loki, shedding its covering of snow to uncover stone and moss and then unrolling at Loki’s feet to reveal the hands, feet, and a male troll who barely came up to Loki’s knees. Less vicious indeed.

“We greet you openly, Most-Cunning.”

Loki smiled. He hadn’t missed the names Midgardians had come up for him per se, but it was charming to hear them again. He took in the blue glowing jewels, the general air of authority and knowledge, and made an assumption. “You are one of the priests of this tribe?”

“Gothi, My Lord.” Gothi bowed deeply. “It is an honour to witness your return after so many years.” He bowed lower. “What brings you to our humble corner of Midgard?”

Loki’s smile vanished with his good humour. What was he doing here? Chasing boogeymen and phantasms, running away from the truth of his own nature and wrapping the Midgardian lies around himself to replace the Asgardian ones. “None of your concern, Troll.” Gothi drew back in respect and (mostly) fear, and Loki immediately felt better, although no better predisposed to the Troll as he had been. “You have nothing I need and nothing I search for.” He turned, dismissing the creature and intending on continuing his search, and stopped when he came nearly face-to-face with an impressively horned beast who sniffed at him cautiously.

“What is this?”

“This is Sven, Lord. He is a reindeer, and companion to our human, Kristoff.”

Humans. Loki remembered humans – of all the sentient Midgardian races, they were the most numerous and most entertaining. Also the least predictable. They had loved Thor’s simple warmongering and worshiped Loki more privately, secretly, when they wanted something more shameful or complicated. This ice magic may not have been Jötunn. Humans had wielded similar magic before, if rarely. Perhaps this trail led to one of them.

Loki smiled, and it wasn’t an entirely kind expression. He knew how to deal with humans. They were easily impressed, easily cowed, greedy and selfish and small-minded. If Loki came to whichever human was wielding this magic and offered them power, he could warp them to his will with no great effort at all.

He had no intention of returning to Asgard if he could help it, nor of ever dealing with Jötunheim for any reason. But he could easily carve a small niche for himself on this unimportant little world and hide away in relative comfort. It was cowardly and could possibly be cruel if the magic user was intractable, but the idea of crawling into what amounted to a hole (or a small witch’s hut, more likely) and hiding from everything was appealing.

And it would be simple enough, with the right ingredients.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Elsa looked over the magenta dress and shook her head. “No, I think this would work better as an accent colour.”

“Hmm… a cape?” The Royal Seamstress asked. “Then a more earthy gem tone for the dress, perhaps. Teal?”

“That would work,” Elsa said. “And gloves.”

The seamstress’s gaze darted down to Elsa’s perpetually covered hands. “Of course. Seafoam?”

“With teal accents to tie the outfit together,” Elsa said, smiling as the seamstress nodded with her. “What designs were you planning for the rosemaling?”

The seamstress opened a book and showed Elsa some of the designs. Elsa looked them over appreciatively. “Can I have a moment to go through these?”

“Of course, Your Highness.” The seamstress bowed and withdrew from Elsa’s chambers, leaving the dresses draped over the worktable.

Elsa sighed in relief, and her breath briefly froze the book in her hands before she waved the frost away. She settled in her reading seat, taking in the weak late morning sun that was still the best reading light available in the winter months. Certain that she’d remain undisturbed for a few hours at least, Elsa tugged off her gloves and set a quiet little blizzard off in the corner of the room and let frost creep out from around her over the floor and up over the walls and window. With every breath out the frost expanded delicately, tracing patterns and winding around invisible curves, and with every breath in the frost pulled back before finding new patterns to weave.

The designs were lovely, and Elsa wasn’t actually that hard to please. She wanted something as subtle and refined as possible, but also something elegant and special. The cape idea had been a good one, as it would set Elsa aside from the other guests, and the gloves had always added to her delicate appearance. But the patterns on her dress…

Elsa knew that her coronation would be in the summer, where everyone would be thinking of flowers and birds and the greenest, warmest parts of nature. But she wished she could have frost designs, intricate and delicate decorations that would feel like hers. Instead, every design was floral – some ostentatious, others refined, but nothing that felt like Elsa’s.

She sighed. A simple trillium bodice pattern, with the flowers in the same magenta as her cape. Tasteful and adult, yet youthful. She marked the page with rime and continued leafing through for more designs that appealed.

A flash of dark colour out of the window made Elsa sit up. It was midwinter, even the birds who might alight on the castle had mostly left for warmer climates. The animals had also left, or were hibernating, and there was certainly no reason for any servants to risk the hazards of traversing the unpredictably icy roof. Whoever… _whatever_ was out there wasn’t supposed to be.

Weren’t ghosts and the like typically nighttime creatures? Considering there were over seventeen hours of nighttime out of twenty-four, it would be odd that an apparition would choose one of the remaining six-and-a-bit to appear in. That meant that the intruder was likely corporeal – a burglar or an assassin.

Not that that was any less scary. Elsa carefully closed the book and her eyes, trembling as she tried to calm the beating of her heart. “Keep calm, keep it together,” she whispered to herself as she imagined she could feel the intruder getting closer and closer. “Conceal… don’t feel… don’t–” The fire popped and Elsa squeaked in fright and jumped in her seat, flinging her hands over her head in a defensive gesture meant only to protect. It took a moment, but once she realized what had startled her, she started feeling a little foolish.

She was just nervous about the coronation plans, that was all. There was no intruder, no ghost. Just her imagination. Elsa drew herself up as regally as she could and turned towards the window to prove that to herself.

Unsurprising, the snow and ice that had gathered on the rooftop now jutted out in sharp icy stalagmites. She raised a hand to ease them back down, when she noticed an odd greenish colour refracted in them. She followed the track of light to the origin and stared open-mouthed at the tall, lanky man dressed in strange armour and a green cape who was waving pleasantly from where the ice had nearly impaled him. Elsa took in a sharp breath to let out a scream, and the man suddenly disappeared from her sight, only to clasp one hand over her mouth and the other around her arm, holding her in place.

“None of that, now.” The man pushed Elsa not ungently back down into her seat and pinned her there with his hand over his mouth, waving the other one until the icicles receded into the hard-packed snow they had originally been. “If I let you go, do you promise not to scream?”

Elsa nodded vigorously and the man released her. She looked at him, at his odd garb and the way his exposed skin wasn’t even red from the exposure to the cold. “Do you have magic too?”

“Of course not,” the man said. “I just scaled the castle walls, crept over snow without leaving footprints, and dispelled your uncontrolled enchantment through sheer charisma.”

“Who are you?”

“Loki.”

Elsa frowned. “Like the god?” It was arrogant to name yourself after a deity, obviously, but it was an odd kind of self-deprecating arrogance to carry around the name of _that_ god.

“Very like,” Loki said smugly. “And you?”

“Elsa, Princess and soon Queen of Arendelle.”

“Arendal? Wasn’t that southeast of here?”

“Aren _delle_ ,” Elsa corrected him. “Your information is woefully out of date.”

Loki just shrugged. “Geographically, perhaps. But when it comes to magic, I’m willing to bet I’ve more current information than you.”

Elsa’s composure cracked and she took an involuntary step forward. “Can you teach me?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. “I mean… given that you were crawling on my roof looking entirely like a scoundrel, it’s the least you could do.”

“No, the least I could do is leave,” Loki said. “I’m only here to satisfy my own curiosity. Speaking of…” He reached out with his right hand, his fingertips turning blue, and pressed his index finger against Elsa’s forehead.

It felt uncomfortably cold, which was new and weird, and Elsa was not entirely okay with it. “Ow.”

“Did that truly hurt?” Loki asked, withdrawing his hand, which immediately became the same pale peach tone as the rest of his skin.

“Not really,” Elsa said. “It was unpleasant.”

Loki huffed a genteel snort of laughter and shook his head. “Unpleasant, she says.” He sighed. “Well, that answers my question well enough. Despite your powers, you appear to be human.”

“What did you _think_ I was?” Elsa demanded.

Loki just shrugged again and stalked towards the blizzard, holding out his hand and catching the delicate snowflakes as they swirled and fell. “Do you truly want a teacher?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Elsa said fervently. “I can give you anything you want – gold, exotic goods, rare tomes…”

“All I ask is a place to stay, simple amenities such as food and bedding, and privacy.”

Elsa frowned. “That’s all?”

“That’s enough,” Loki said. “Do we have a deal?” He held out his hand, bare and blue, and Elsa only glanced very briefly at her gloves before reaching out to grasp it, touching another person skin-to-skin for the first time in years.

“Deal.”


	2. Lessons

The first week was surprisingly easy, with Elsa eager to learn and Loki pleased to have a safe haven from Asgard’s prying eyes. He warded her room as best he could from Heimdall’s gaze and from most long distance scrying techniques. Of course, this meant that he wasn’t willing to _leave_ Elsa’s room, but she was accommodating as soon as he made it clear that the only interest he had in her was magical, and not romantic or sexual.

No one questioned Elsa’s request for another bed, nor for her meals to be taken to her rooms, with triple her usual portions. She would be crowned in a few months, and however she dealt with the stresses was up to her.

About a third of Elsa’s waking time was spent reviewing decorations and outfits and guest lists for the party, often with her advisors who helped her made the most politically advantageous decisions and the most culturally significant choices. Another third was dedicated to the politics of Arendelle, usually with those same advisors, and maintaining the status quo and dealing with crises. But she was equally dedicated to what time she could spend with Loki, practicing and learning how to use her magic in ways that were new and astounding to her.

“Delicate,” Loki chided as Elsa tried to bolster her intricate ice dome by thickening one of her weight-bearing icicles. “Nothing thicker than a sewing needle.”

Elsa bit her lower lip and focused sharply, forming what appeared to be a decorative curl between two load-bearing icicles and took some of the weight off both.

“Good,” Loki said, approvingly. “Make the aesthetics work for you. Remember that you have infinite material, at no cost. Within the laws of nature, you can do anything.”

“Anything?” Elsa asked, pulling away her magic before her distraction ruined her design. “And what about outside the laws of nature?”

Loki smiled at her ambition. “Concentrate on working within the boundaries of the natural laws first.”

Elsa resisted the urge to stick out her tongue and returned to concentrating on her dome.

Mere minutes into her renewed efforts, her attention was shattered, followed by the dome, at an unexpected knock at her door. “Elsa?”

“Not now, Anna!”

Loki looked over at the door in mild curiosity, ignoring the tiny ice shards that were melting in front of Elsa. Elsa, in turn, ignored him.

“O-okay. When would be a good time to come back?”

“Half-past never,” Elsa snapped waving a hand to vanish the evidence of her failure. “What do you even want?”

“Just to talk about the ball.” Anna’s voice wavered uncertainly. “But if you’re busy, I’ll leave you alone.”

“Good.” Elsa waited until she was sure Anna was gone before huffing an impatient sigh. “My little sister, Anna.”

Loki made a soft neutral sound, his eyes still fixed speculatively on the door.

Feeling oddly embarrassed, Elsa elaborated. “I… when we were children, I hurt her. With my powers. It was an accident, but since then I’ve kept all this–” She waved her hands and snow swirled around the room “–away from her. But she’s so nosy and annoying, and always seems to find the exact wrong moments to bother me.”

“A trait shared by many younger siblings, no doubt,” Loki said, turning his attention back to Elsa. “Now, let’s see you try a bridge.”

The next few weeks were bitterly cold and even Elsa was feeling cooped up indoors all the time. The courtyard, normally Anna’s favourite place to play, was sealed off, the wood creaking with the pressure of cold snow pushing against it. Three more times Anna knocked on Elsa’s door for her sister’s attention, and three more times she was turned away, each time more curtly than the last as Elsa took refuge in the one thing that still entranced her – her lessons with Loki.

Loki was careful to demonstrate only ice magic to Elsa, strengthening her control and finesse of the element, and learning a surprising amount in return. Ice had never been Loki’s favourite medium, and watching the joy with which Elsa manipulated it led Loki to some experiments of his own.

But it was only a matter of time before Elsa’s curiosity overcame her narrow focus on ice.

“How did you move from the roof to my room when I first saw you?”

Loki didn’t look up from the ice cube he was slicing corners off, trying to make a reasonable sphere. “Magic.”

“Teach me that.”

Loki looked up, amused. “You wield ice, princess, nothing more. Your magic is purely elemental in nature, whereas mine is far more diverse. I can teach you only what you are capable of.”

“Why aren’t I capable of any of that?”

“Because you’re–” Loki stopped and considered. “Perhaps you’d be able to perform some of the same feats through a different medium. Ice is surprisingly versatile, although brittle and fragile. It reflects and refracts light, much like glass. I could teach you some of those illusions and tricks.”

Loki’s tone turned bitter on that last word, but Elsa wisely shied away from what was clearly a sensitive topic. “Please.”

Shaking off his odd turn of mood, Loki raised seven slabs of ice with no imperfections. He stood in the center and carefully judged each one, nodding with satisfaction before turning back to Elsa. “Come here.”

Elsa moved into the circle, admiring the way the light was warped and dulled by the ice. “What now?”

“Illusions are merely visual, light that lies. We’ll work on obscuring what is there later, for now let’s try using ice to make the light show what isn’t there.” Loki duplicated himself once, then again, then again until there were seven replicas that stood behind each pillar of ice. “Start with one at a time.”

With that vague direction, Elsa focused on the details of the light moving through the ice. She could see skewed versions of herself and Loki within the ice, distorted but still recognisable. She concentrated on one of the pillars, twisting the ice until her form was clearer, more realistic.

The pillar shattered before her facial features became clear and Elsa ducked as the shards fell around her.

“Excellent start,” Loki said. “Again.”

Her magic had always come naturally to Elsa. Even the intricacies and control that Loki demanded flowed without much difficulty. This was harder. Elsa shattered all seven of the pillars without making much improvement.

Loki didn’t look nearly as discouraged as Elsa felt. “You can practice that later, if you like. For now, let’s see how much energy you can concentrate into a snowstorm that fits into the palm of your hand.”

With the first thaw of spring – enough to harden the soft snow and create hidden patches of light, the courtyard was once again closed and Elsa was busier than ever with her advisors as the frozen rains damaged roofs and several key personnel suffered from minor injuries from slipping and falling. She had very little time to spend with Loki, and their training devolved to practicing things Elsa already mostly knew, only increasing her power and strength.

Under the strain of her increased responsibilities and her impending coronation, Elsa became more impatient with Loki.

“You said you’d help me control the magic. But you only seem to be making it stronger.” She shivered and frost started covering the floor under her feet, sending out small spikes. “Why aren’t you helping me _control_ it?”

Loki looked at her, bemused. “I am. What do you think these exercises are for?”

“To make me more powerful, for some purpose,” Elsa said. “What do you have planned?”

“You think you’re at all useful for my plans?” Loki asked incredulously. “Your power is merely a weak echo of but one aspect of my own powers, and hardly the most useful one at that. I can assure you, apart from a safe haven, I want nothing more from you.” Honestly, at this point, Loki wasn’t sure _what_ he planned to do. Elsa’s training had been a distraction, and a welcome one, from planning his next step. For someone used to plans within plans within contingencies within plans, it was somewhat unnerving to be at such loose ends.

“Then is this about Arendelle? You have plans for my kingdom to be your ‘safe haven’?”

Loki snorted. “I’ve expended more energy than you’ve ever wielded warding this one room. To think that I’d choose to spend a thousand times that on your pitiful town or a hundred thousand times that on your desolate country is beyond ridiculous.”

“Then what?” Elsa snapped. “What are you building me up for? The stronger I get, the harder this is to control…”

“The harder this is to _suppress_ , you mean,” Loki corrected harshly. “You’ve been taught to hide what you are from a very young age.” _At least, however, she_ knew _who and what she was_. “Control isn’t just about hiding and denying.”

_Conceal. Don’t feel_. Elsa flinched from Loki’s words, and the frost spikes shot up at Loki, only to dissolve into twinkling snowflakes at a wave of his arm.

“Your parents have done you no favours by locking you away. You mentioned before that the local trolls saved your sister – why then did your parents not send you to train with them? Unless you have troll blood and your parents feared you finding out your true heritage.”

The fear Elsa had been feeling turned into anger, and the frost melted away. “How dare you? My parents would never keep that from me.”

“They might if your mother had lain with a troll and–”

This time the spikes of ice Elsa shot at Loki were entirely intentional. “Don’t talk about my mother that way.”

“Or if you weren’t their child at all. After all, magic usually follows bloodlines. Were either of your parents able to wield any sort of magic? Hmm? And your little sister, Anna. Can she?”

“If I was illegitimate or adopted, then why crown me when they had a real daughter?” Elsa demanded. “Especially after I nearly–” Her voice broke and she collapsed, hiding her face in her hands. “If I wasn’t their daughter, surely they would have abandoned me after what I did to Anna.”

Loki sighed. “You’d be surprised at how sentimental people can be.” He reached out and patted Elsa’s shoulder awkwardly. “Let’s leave this conversation behind and clean up. You could use a good night’s sleep.”

And, truly, Elsa did feel better after waking up the next morning, but she wasn’t able to completely shake of the feeling that Loki wasn’t entirely to be trusted.

Time passed and the snow melted completely, leaving behind only rare patches in shaded corners of the woods. The streams ran freely and full with the winter run-off, and the flowers started blooming, determined to make the best of the short spring season.

The coronation had surpassed all other issues in the castle. Elsa’s advisors took as much of the menial tasks of ruling out of her hands as the preparations started in earnest. Not normally the sort of girl to get swept away in glamour and glitter, Elsa nevertheless found herself giggling over floral arrangements and giving serious thought to which china to use. Every inane detail was suddenly important, as this was Elsa’s first chance to charm and woo Arendelle’s trading partners. This wasn’t just about her coronation – it was about her impression on the rest of the world. Her entire reign would be judged based on this one ball, and it needed to be perfect.

Because if it wasn’t, she would be letting down her parents, her country, and her sister.

Anna, at least, seemed empty-headed as usual, flitting around the castle like a puppy let out of her kennel. Elsa managed to mostly ignore her and tend to the important matters at hand.

Unfortunately, that meant spending less and less time with Loki as well, although Elsa didn’t miss it quite as much with her attention on something this imminent.

Still, it caused problems.

“What do you do all day?” Elsa asked curiously.

Loki looked up from the book she’d brought him, making his page and piling it up with the others. “I’m bored, if you must know. But this is a rare occasion in my life where I’d rather be bored than be caught.”

“What are you running from?” Elsa didn’t honestly expect an answer, and Loki didn’t provide one. She sighed and leafed through the list of musicians who were coming to perform.

A light and happy knock on Elsa’s door interrupted their reading. “Elsa?”

“Anna.” Elsa sighed. “What do you want?”

“You’ve been cooped up all week! Dagna says the cloudberry flowers are out. Wanna come see?”

Elsa sighed and closed her book. She was genuinely torn between wanting to explore just a little of the surrounding area she would soon rule, and making sure that none of the invited musicians were the sort to cause a drunken commotion. She looked at Loki, who was completely unhelpfully reading his own book again and didn’t even bother to make eye contact.

Anna knocked again, cautiously, and opened the door a crack. “I’ve packed a picnic if that sweetens the deal…”

Loki’s head shot up at the open door, his eyes wide, before turning to Elsa and letting a large, slow grin creep over his face. If he was caught in her rooms, he’d likely be chased out of the castle, punished severely were he to be caught (which he didn’t intend to be) but she would lose a great deal of her reputation, something she could hardly afford at this delicate time.

As if reading his mind, Elsa jumped off the bed, leaving the list of musicians to fall to the floor as she slammed the door closed. “Anna, you can’t just barge in here!”

“I wasn’t barging!” Anna yelled back. “You’re getting musty in there!”

“That’s none of your business!” Elsa threw up her hands in disgust. Now, even had she wanted to, there was no way she could accept Anna’s invitation after so sharply rejecting her. “Go flower hunting on your own.”

“Fine! I will!”

Elsa fumed at the door for a few moments after Anna had stomped off, then whirled around, pointing an accusing finger at Loki. “You. _Out_.”

Loki noticed with some interest that Elsa’s anger seemed to focus her energy, rather than loosen it like her fear did. But now was clearly not the time for such observations. “Oh?”

“If anyone catches you in here, it would be far more trouble than I’m willing to deal with.”

Loki stood slowly, letting himself loom over Elsa’s smaller, suddenly fragile form. “And if I refuse?”

Elsa’s power didn’t flare as it usually did when she felt threatened or frightened. Perhaps Loki was losing his touch. Instead, she faced him, chin tilted up in firm conviction rather than defiance or arrogance. “I promised you a safe haven, and didn’t ask for details – which was my fault, I’ll admit. And I do plan on keeping my word. You can stay in the castle, of course, under the protection of whatever wards you want, but you can’t stay in my bedroom! I don’t know what I didn’t kick you out months ago.”

“Inertia,” Loki said, as he relaxed. Elsa wasn’t rejecting him; he hadn’t been pushed aside again. It was a little disturbing how quickly he’d jumped to that conclusion and how much it had hurt. “I understand. Give me a few days to remove and replace the wards where you will house me and I’ll do my best to stay out of anyone’s sight until then.”

“We can say you’re a diplomat,” Elsa said, warming up to the idea. “The coronation’s not for weeks, but it would be easy enough to claim that you had better travel than expected. Since you’d be the first one here, without any competition, I’d be expected to keep you entertained. We could practice then, in total privacy.” Her smile fell as a thought occurred to her. “Anna would probably be expected to spend time with you as well.”

“I believe those conditions would be tolerable. Continue practicing in your spare time even when I’m gone.”

Elsa’s smile returned. “Of course. Thank you.”

Ah, the graciousness of a royal scion given what she wanted. Loki gave a half-ironic bow, using an overblown genuflection to hide his ironic smile.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

“Announcing the arrival of the second cousin to the Duke of Tromsø, Lokki Krogh.”

Elsa and Loki had thought out his title and origin very carefully. Tromsø and Arendelle were not on the best of terms since Tromsø had started trading in cod, which had originally been Arendelle’s monopoly. Given how far northeast Tromsø was, however, most of their trade was with Russia and Finland, while Arendelle continued trading with their Norwegian neighbours and Sweden, as well as countries further south. Because of the moderately bad blood, an invitation had been extended but was not expected to be answered. The closest invited guests would be from Trondheim, and Loki was fairly certain he could talk fast enough to get around them. The Krogh family was known to be from that area, a respected name, if not a noble one.

Loki, dressed in flattering leathers and the colourful tunic Elsa had found for him in one of the dusty storerooms of the castle, bowed appropriately to Elsa as he was introduced. Elsa looked at him with pursed lips, quietly disapproving of his early arrival. “I had not anticipated you for at least three weeks.”

“My apologies,” Loki said, bowing further. “I had anticipated fiercer weather. It would appear that even nature itself has bestowed its favour upon your coronation.”

Elsa’s lips quirked up slightly, amused at the overblown flattery. “So it would seem.” She held out her hand and Loki presented her with the papers they had forged the day before, easy enough with Elsa’s extensive knowledge and Loki’s skills. “You are yet welcome, on this joyous occasion. We can find rooms for you, I’m sure.”

“My thanks,” Loki said, bowing again before being casually dismissed.

It took less than an hour to resituate the wards in his new room. It wasn’t until he was done that Loki took the time to appreciate having his own space again. The room wasn’t nearly as well-appointed as Elsa’s had been, naturally, but it was _his_. He wondered idly what she’d done with the bed he’d used in her room, before dismissing the concern as utterly unimportant.

What was more important was the small library of political manuals and maps that had been left in this room, for his perusal. While only casually curious, Loki had to admit that such knowledge would help immensely in his disguise. He marked a large red book with a title seven words long as a good place to start – dry reading, no doubt, by an author who thought himself a leading expert, but it would contain the most factual information without ‘interesting’ commentary. By the same token, the small blue tour guide would make much lighter reading.

He shrugged off his personal cloaking spells, confident that even Heimdall wouldn’t be able to find him in the privacy of this room, just as a now familiar knock sounded from the door.

Loki was entirely unsurprised to find Anna on the other side, her cheeks lightly flushed in excited embarrassment. “Ah… yes?”

“Oh!” Anna twitched as if holding herself back from bowing. “I’m Anna, Elsa… _Princess_ Elsa’s younger sister.”

She looked like a particularly poorly turned-out servant, apart from her clearly new and fancy clothes. Her hair was braided with strands escaping in all directions, there was mud sticking to the sides of her boots, her skirts were hanging oddly, and her posture was… awkward. Loki ignored all those signs and bowed. After all, Thor had often greeted diplomats covered in blood and gore from his latest hunt, and Loki had been known to forget to bathe or eat for days when he was in the middle of experimenting, whether guests were present in Asgard or not. Just because Elsa was always perfectly put together didn’t mean that other royals didn’t use their rank to get away with sloppiness when they wanted.

It paid off; Anna’s flush deepened, and she looked utterly charmed at Loki’s manners. Loki decided against attempting to kiss the back of her hand. He didn’t actually want to accidentally seduce her – as lovely as she seemed, the mystery of Elsa’s powers was far more to Loki’s taste than a naïve short-lived tryst.

“As you may have heard, my name is Lokki. I arrived unfashionably early and find myself at the mercy of your sister’s generous hospitality.”

“I know! I can’t believe she let you in!” Anna suddenly looked more embarrassed than excited. “I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with you, just that we don’t let _anyone_ in. Or we didn’t, but I guess with the coronation coming we’re letting everyone in, so that makes sense.”

Did Elsa know her sister was remarkably easy to pry information from? Loki knew from experience that such loose lips were rarely good for even the most well-intentioned rulers. “I am honoured.”

“You are? Of course you are! And we… we’re honoured to have you, I’m sure,” Anna said in a single breath. “Have you eaten?”

“Not for a few hours,” Loki said, smiling.

Anna grabbed his hand, and Loki reminded himself that she’d been locked away with nothing but servants for most of her life. “C’mon, then. Supper will be served soon. You can sit beside me.”

Loki refrained from asking if he was expected. If nothing else, watching the fall-out if he wasn’t would be entertaining. But Elsa had clearly ordered a spot set for him, albeit not near Anna.

But Anna was a force of nature, plopping Loki down in the seat next to hers, assuring him that the finance minister wouldn’t mind. Loki caught Elsa’s quiet exasperation, and had to hide a smile of his own. As much as he sympathized with her impatience with a sibling who acted without thinking, he did enjoy being the cause (even obliquely) of small pockets of chaos. The disgruntled minister, his suddenly more cheerful rival, the oblivious Anna and wincing Elsa, all were balms to a trickster prince who had been on his better than best behaviour for far too long.

“How is Tromsø?” Anna asked as soon as she was seated. Before Loki could give some vague political lie, she grabbed his arm and continued. “It’s so far north! Has the snow even melted yet? I bet it hasn’t. Is that why you’re here so early? I heard that there are ice roads up there that are quicker than any summertime travel. What roads did you come down on?”

Loki stared at her. “Which question should I answer first?”

“Anna,” Elsa whispered urgently. “Stop hounding him.”

The minister Loki had pegged as the finance minister’s rival, considering how pleased he was to see Loki take that erstwhile man’s place, cleared his throat. “Your Highnesses, honoured guest. I believe the servants are waiting to serve the soup course?”

Loki raised his eyebrow at such blatant chiding, but both Anna and Elsa immediately sat back and quietened. It was a little unnerving, although not altogether unreasonable, to see that they could be so easily cowed by someone of a lower rank. No doubt, after their parents’ deaths, they had been all but raised by their father’s advisors. Loki smiled at the serving woman who placed a bowl of still-steaming soup on his plate, his mind pondering whether it would be worthwhile to advise Elsa to get new advisors, ones that didn’t see her as a little girl, or if that was more effort than he was willing to put into this little hobby.

“Elsa, the dressmaker gave me the design for your coronation dress so we can match. Or at least not clash. I was wondering if you think–”

“No business at the table, Anna,” Elsa chided gently.

Anna outright pouted. “But I never get to see you except at mealtimes, and even then you take them in your rooms sometimes.”

“Even so.”

“But–”

“ _Anna_.”

Anna deflated in her chair, her shoulders hunched up and her arms crossed so that she looked rather like an angry chipmunk. Loki focused on his soup – creamy and green-flavoured, with the first few herbs of spring. In Asgard, it wouldn’t be out of place to stand and start reciting a tale or sing to defuse the tense situation, even as a guest, be he had the feeling that Arendelle was somewhat different.

The meal continued quietly, with occasional stilted conversation about the weather. Loki got drawn into a discussion over fishing with one of the chief merchants, who was fortunately the kind of blowhard who was mostly interested in the sound of his own pedantic voice. Loki let him lecture on about the _proper_ way to fish cod while slyly slipping unwanted vegetables onto Anna’s plate.

It was too bad that she didn’t even notice. Elsa, however, did notice, and seemed caught between irritation and amusement. Loki had seen similar faces on many of his friends, and even his mother, and it made him feel more himself than he’d felt in a long while.

Then he remembered the lie that was his perception of self, and his skin felt alien and false again, as it hadn’t in a while.

He hid his relief as the meal ended, thanking the merchant for a wonderful conversation. Elsa offered to escort him back to his room, sliding smoothly between Loki and Anna and taking Loki’s arm. Loki couldn’t resist a small wave at Anna, and was gratified to see her smile back, as she waved half-heartedly at him.

As soon as Elsa had him alone, she pounced. “I’ve been working on the whole ‘ice is brittle’ issue, and I have an idea…” She waved her hand and formed a dull-looking pillar that, once Loki examined more closely, was made of thousands or even millions of tiny trabeculae, ice rods only a few milimeters long at most, that criss-crossed each other and turned what looked like a solid structure into an more flexible interconnected web of many single structures.

Should one break, there were dozens ready to take its load.

Loki made an interested noise, the meal forgotten. “Can you do this on a larger scale?”

Elsa was already straining through the focus of making so many tiny things so closely together, but she looked up at Loki and grinned. “Watch me.”

And Loki did, pleased that this change of venue certainly wasn’t taking away what made working with Elsa so enjoyable.


	3. Coronation Day

Loki watched from the roof as the town blossomed for the coronation day. It was soon, and Elsa was getting antsy. Not that Loki would know that from her public appearances, but after she’d told him that she needed to put her lessons on hold until everyone had left, Loki had taken to the shadows and shamelessly spied on her.

What he saw was disconcerting. Without practice and Loki’s steady guidance and support, Elsa’s powers were flaring unpredictably, worse when she fretted, only settling when she slept. She wore her gloves continually now, even most of the time when she was alone. Loki had watched, displeased but unable to act, as Elsa tried to stifle her powers again, as she had been trying to do before Loki had come.

Hadn’t she learned? It was impossible to deny something so very intrinsically a part of herself. Loki refused to look any deeper into that thought and slipped back into the shadows, returning to the persona of the quiet out-of-the way minor noble who found himself accidentally amongst his superiors.

It would have been boring, had it not been for the steward’s casual comment that Loki overheard, lamenting the fact that he only had four corners and five feuding families to seat. Loki had been amusing himself with reviewing the known politics of the region, and had found ties through marriage and alliances for more of the major families, albeit through their minor offshoots. He’d offered to help, and using a fascinating colour scheme and tiny figurines, they eventually modeled a dining room that abutted ally-to-ally and insulated rivals and enemies. It was a delicate balance that was unlikely to weather the political changes of even a full year, but it was elegant and workable.

Pleased with that work, Loki was even more pleased at the alliances he had made for himself while working with the steward. Midgard wasn’t as objectionable as he’d first thought, and the idea of staying here, with Elsa or elsewhere, was looking less like the easiest solution to his problems, as if had seemed when he’d first arrived, and more like a truly viable option. Perhaps, once Elsa was queen and her life stabilized somewhat, Loki could teach her that restraint and control weren’t always the same things.

He looked down at movement in the gardens, and saw Anna in her ballgown excitedly dancing while the servants worked around her, giving her only the mildest amused glances. It was likely for the best that she was, in general, a well-behaved child not prone to mischief, because Loki could easily imagine himself in her position while a feast for Thor was prepared, too bored to refrain from a prank or two. He slipped back into the castle and, from the comments he overheard, it turned out that even unintentionally, Anna could give him a run for his money in the mischief department.

“Tell the guards to open up the gates!” Elsa called.

The visiting dignitaries filed in, eyeing each other and exchanging greetings of varying sincerity. Loki made a few minor adjustments to the seating plan while watching them, and sent them off to the steward as he melted into the background, an unfamiliar face with a recognizably noble bearing who passed without being overly noted by anyone other than the few unattached younger (and some of the older) ladies present.

The ceremony itself was blessedly short, something that Loki suspected Elsa had arranged. She performed admirably, appearing to show the proper reverence towards the ceremony and the duties given to her. Loki was pretty sure she was just worried about her powers escaping her control, but he was absolutely certain he was the only one who noticed anything as frost crept over the sceptre and orb she held in her bare hands. It was more obvious how quickly she slipped her gloves back on, something Loki would certainly have to lecture her over in the future – never let anyone see the source of your fear – but she recovered admirably, looking every inch the perfect, decorous queen.

The feast afterwards was far more interesting. Loki partnered two young unattached woman and a minor lord’s wife at some lively dancing before Elsa walked in, soon joined by her sister. They looked lovely together, a little awkward, but lovely. Soon enough Anna was swept away in the arms of one of the young gentlemen, and Elsa stood by herself at the head of the room, briefly talking with people as they approached. Most of the nobles were appropriately impressed with the atmosphere, the elegance, the quiet serenity of the new queen. Loki moved away from their insipid comments and towards the servants.

The story from them was somewhat different. Two of the porters had gotten into the wine and had to be replaced with younger, less experienced boys and the servers were certain that everyone noticed. Loki amused himself by finding the two new porters and felt that he could comfortably assume that no one noticed any difference. An exasperated huff from one of the matrons drew Loki’s attention to where she was whispering to one of the younger girls.

“Honestly, what is that girl thinking? Running off with that young lordling during her own sister’s coronation.”

Loki looked around, perturbed at how he could have missed Anna’s absence. He smirked to himself; good for her for finding something entertaining to engage her attention during a dull party set for her sister. Elsa certainly didn’t seem to miss her, and despite her announcement that she didn’t dance, Loki felt that Elsa would have been happier out of the center of attention, or at least out of the center of interaction.

Ah, and there was Anna now – kindly taking some of the attention from her elder sister by gracelessly pulling her beau through the crowded dance floor towards where Elsa was holding an informal court. Loki moved towards them to better hear what would come of this confrontation.

And Anna didn’t disappoint.

‘Prince’ Hans, of the Southern Isles (and if that wretched collection of rocks merited the title of ‘kingdom’, then Loki despaired of Midgardian standards) and Anna gushed over each other, both of them stammering and stumbling as they requested Elsa’s blessing for their marriage. Loki considered the geopolitical repercussions of such an alliance and shrugged. Arendelle could do worse.

“Marriage?” Elsa sounded shocked, which did not bode well. The second son (or daughter) had a responsibility to marry well, acting as a bridge between Realms. Loki himself had expected to marry a Vanir bride or even an elf, while Thor would be expected to marry whoever would give him the best heirs, likely a noble Asgardian. Of course, now that Loki knew he was nothing more than a monster, he supposed he was free to marry whoever, or whatever, would have him.

“I’m sorry, I’m confused,” Elsa said to Anna.

“Well, we haven’t worked out all the details ourselves,” Anna admitted, cuddling up to Hans. “We’ll need a few days to plan the ceremony. Of course we’ll have soup, roast, and ice cream and then – wait. Would we live here?”

“Absolutely!” Hans gushed.

Loki wasn’t so sure about Hans. He was handsome and fair and the epitome of the vigorous bloom of youth. Loki thought sourly that he was probably an expert swordsman as well, likely the darling of the Southern Isles. Everything likely had come easily to him, for example: Anna. Loki had no patience for that sort of man, although he could see the appeal from a young woman’s perspective quite easily.

Meanwhile, Elsa was laying down the law – quite literally in this instance. “You can’t marry a man you just met.”

“You can if it’s true love.”

Elsa sighed. “Anna, what do you know about true love?”

Ah. A fair and decisive hit.

“More than you,” Anna retorted. “All you know is how to shut people out.”

Another vicious hit. Loki reflected that siblings were truly uniquely qualified to hurt each other. Certainly, if he’d told Thor some choice truths at specific moments, even Asgard’s greatest warrior and crown prince would have flinched. And then probably shaken Loki until his teeth rattled; Thor only had a few reactions to displeasure.

Apparently, so did Elsa. “This party is over. Close the gates,” she ordered as she walked out of the room. The Royal Handler bowed and went to do her bidding, but Anna was still determined to be heard.

“What? Elsa, no. No, wait!” Anna raced after her sister, making a huge scene. Loki watched as the servants scurried around, trying to minimize the impact. A stilted gasp from Elsa drew Loki’s attention back to her. Anna had taken her glove, which shouldn’t really be a problem, except that Elsa’s control issues were tied pretty closely with her exposed hands.

“Give me my glove!”

Anna didn’t. Loki crossed his arms and watched as Elsa grew more desperate and Anna grew more petulant. “Elsa, please, I can’t live like this anymore.”

“Then leave.”

Elsa held herself, cradling her exposed hand, and turned away. Anna clutched her sister’s glove and looked like her heart was breaking – ah, young angst. “What did I ever do to you?”

“Enough, Anna.”

Loki moved towards the door, preparing to catch Elsa as soon as she left the hall and either get her calmed down or rile her up just enough to let off some of her repressed tension. Anna was still calling to her sister, petulant things that Loki paid no attention to, until she balled her fists and threw her final verbal volley at Elsa. “What are you so afraid of?”

Elsa’s shoulders hunched and Loki knew, from a history of watching Thor lose his temper, that this wasn’t going to be pretty.

“I said…” Elsa whirled, making a defensive slice with her uncovered hand. “… _enough_!”

Ice shot from Elsa’s hand, forming a ring of spikes that would make a Frost Giant tasked with defending himself weep with envy. It would have been impressive, had it been at all voluntary.

But it wasn’t, clearly.

“Sorcery!” One of the Lords gasped. Loki had heard enough, seen enough, to know that this wasn’t something that could be smoothed over with some fast talk and easy promises. Elsa had been terrified of anyone finding out about her powers, and now the most powerful men and women from her kingdom and the surrounding countries all knew. Loki personally found it a silly fear – power was power, and one exploited theirs to their own benefit and to their enemies’ detriment. But it was genuine, and fear was one of Elsa’s driving forces. She was going to run.

Sure enough, rather than explaining herself (or just wielding her authority as Queen) Elsa groped at the door until it opened and ran out. Loki followed behind the few guests who rushed out after her, after Anna and Hans who were still together, after the guards who were too slow to get between the retreating Queen and her pursuers. This was turning out to be quite the party.

He was far too late to see Elsa actually leave, but signs of her chaotic passage were easy enough to follow – the fountain frozen in mid-stream, the iced steps where several large bodyguards had slipped and fallen, the frozen fjord that had permitted her crossing. Loki whipped up a small ‘don’t notice me’ spell beside the cloaking spell that hid him from Heimdall’s gaze and laughed at the utter beauty of the disaster that had come from Elsa’s coronation. When it started snowing, Loki’s laughter turned even more gleeful, as he realized just how big of a mess Elsa had accidentally made.

If he’d worried about her deciding she didn’t need him in the future, this would have eased his concerns. She had broken, perfectly and completely, and broken through whatever feeble Midgardian limitations she’d thought she had. Even Thor would have been hard-pressed to change the weather patterns over such a large area without the aid of Mjölnir, and Elsa hadn’t even intended it.

What perfectly imperfect creatures these Midgardians were. Elsa, of course, but also her sister who knew just how to push her, the handsome Hans who expected everything to go his way, that imperious Lord who so arrogantly made decrees in someone else’s castle… Loki’s intentions had been to hide away in quiet while recovering from his revealed origins and not confronting his lying father. Instead, he’d been a witness to one of the most entertaining ceremonies he’d ever not been a part of ruining.

Of course, had anyone from Asgard been present, they’d likely have assumed and accused Loki of being behind everything.

Still invisible, he watched as a horse and rider stormed past him. Anna, alone and wearing only her dress and a cloak, rode determinedly into the cold night, after her sister. Loki had to admit he was impressed; after causing her sister to run away from the only home she’d ever known, Anna was still willing to confront her. Generally, when Loki provoked Thor past his endurance, he stayed away from her brother for days, or even weeks if Thor didn’t have anything to distract him from his anger.

Anna’s love and dedication deserved some kind of reward. Perhaps a more receptive sister than might otherwise greet her. Loki strolled onto the icy fjord and decided to make that happen.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Elsa felt… happy? Not quite, her stomach was still churning and her hands shook with the lingering effects of the panic she’d felt at the castle.

But it was done. It was out; everyone knew that Elsa of Arendelle was an ice witch. There was no more reason to pretend to be the perfect, _normal_ little princess. In fact, there was no more reason to pretend to be anything. She was alone, with no one to judge her or demand things of her or bother her.

She’d tried. She really had. If the coronation had been successful, she would have closed the gates to all but a few invited guests and ruled from afar. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have worked. Her father’s advisors were honourable men who had the good of the kingdom and its people in mind and in their hearts. Anna…

Anna would have left eventually. The coronation wasn’t anything new, as far as Elsa could tell. Anna had always wanted to be with people, to go on adventures and get dirty and share jokes and games. She would have left, and she would have been happy. Maybe with that Hans fellow, more likely with someone she’d spent more than a few hours with, but she would have found someone. Lots of someones, likely. And Elsa would have been alone.

Like she was now. Only now she didn’t even have the responsibilities of being Queen to drag her down. She was free, truly free.

She could live the rest of her life up here. Summer never quite touched the top of the mountains; it was ice and snow all year ‘round. But Elsa had never felt the cold, certainly not compared to the pain of watching her own people shy away from her as if she, and her powers, were dangerous.

And her powers! Elsa could feel them course through her, as if revived by her uncontrolled outburst. With a wave of her hand, she released small flurries, recreated the snowman she and Anna had played with before everything went so wrong, even bridged the gap between mountain peaks with a glittery ice staircase. Remembering her lessons with Loki, Elsa reinforced the staircase with triangular buttresses but also, to her own taste, added small touches of elegance that Loki would have snorted at and called unnecessary.

It was so easy. So much easier than holding everything in, hiding away. While the solitude and isolation had never bothered her, Elsa wasn’t naturally inclined towards duplicity and far preferred this kind of solitude, where it didn’t matter what anyone thought of her. She’d been born and bred to be Queen, but ruling wasn’t all problem-solving and management. There was a necessary charisma, one that Elsa had always been uncomfortable with, and one that Anna would no doubt embrace. With Elsa known as a sorceress, she couldn’t return, surely.

Elsa smiled. But she could make a home here. She marked an area on the side of the mountain and reached out with her power. She’d never tried doing anything this big before, but she’d performed feats that had required far more accuracy and delicacy. Ice grew, spreading out in endless fractals, and Elsa controlled that growth, pushing up from the snowy ground with perfect, thick ice pillars that kept the ice platform upon which Elsa stood level and even.

Meanwhile, she created more pillars, enforcing the icy walls, as well as arcs and domes that created patterns that fractured and amplified what little light came from the moon and stars. It was June, and dawn approached very early, but the sun was low in the sky and would be partially blocked by the thicker walls. It was a cool and pristine palace, hard and precise and unyealding. She adored it. It was a palace that didn’t invite anyone else in or make them comfortable, but rather insulated her from them. Surely no one would bother her here.

Her heart nearly bursting with joy, Elsa tore her hair free from its bindings and replaced her heavy, confining dress with something more mobile and delicate. She strutted out onto the balcony to great the morning sun, revelling in her freedom, before returning to her sanctuary of solitude.

“Interesting choices.”

Elsa nearly yelped in surprise as she almost ran into Loki, sitting on an ice throne. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

“Bursting your little self-impressed bubble,” Loki answered, examining his fingernails in an overly unconcerned manner. “This is a lovely little hide-away you’ve built here, on the side of a mountain facing the same townspeople you’re trying to hide from. How will they ever find you, apart from looking up?”

Elsa clenched her fists and the throne Loki had been sitting on vanished in a glittering pile of snowflakes. Loki was only just quick enough to get to his feet before falling. “I’m not _hiding_ , not anymore. Why would anyone want to find me, after what happened?”

“I’m sure someone will find a reason to go after you,” Loki assured her. “Someone always does.” He stalked around her, his eyes roaming over her new dress, her new hair, making Elsa feel like squirming. “But in the meantime, you seem to be missing a few amenities. Where, exactly, were you planning on sleeping?”

“One the ice,” Elsa said, daring Loki to gainsay her.

Loki grunted his acceptance, but didn’t stop here. “And what do you intend to eat?” Elsa’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. “And where, precisely, were you planning on… _relieving_ yourself?”

Elsa flushed, realizing what he meant, but pushed the question of toileting aside. “And what would you have me do? I’m a _monster_. I can’t go back to Arendelle, this is the only place for me.”

As Loki had begun thinking of Midgard as the only place for him. Less short-sighted, perhaps, than Elsa, but not as different as he might have hoped. “You’re being ridiculous. Just because your abilities are rare here doesn’t mean they’re monstrous. Where I come from, such skills are commonplace and, in the proper context, respected. You are a Queen and a power to be reckoned with; the only thing stopping you from taking what respect and security you want is your irrational fear.”

“My fear is entirely rational! When I was a child, I nearly killed my sister with my powers. It doesn’t matter what I want or what I intend, when I use my magic I hurt people. I need to protect them, Anna, the people of Arendelle, even the other nations.”

“Then protect them by learning to control yourself.”

“That was what my parents tried,” Elsa said, exasperated. “ _Conceal, don’t feel_ , keep it all inside, don’t let anything out.”

Loki snorted. “Indeed. And did you learn penmanship by locking away all the ink? Did you learn to proper diction by sewing your lips shut? Restraint and control are related, but they’re not the same. There are times when you need to refrain, and times when you need to act with all your strength.”

“When?”

Loki looked at Elsa pensively, then extended his arm, growing a blade of ice that spread from his wrist over his and, out to the length of his forearm.

“Now might be a god time.” He launched himself at Elsa, blade first, openly and obviously attacking. She fell back, only avoiding being skewered because Loki was trying to miss. “Come, Snow Queen, show me what you’re capable of!”

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

“So, how exactly were you planning on stopping this weather?” Kristoff asked as he led Anna through a winter wonderland of snow mounds adorned with horizontal, wind-swept icicles that looked like semi-transparent spears and blades. He’d never seen anything like it, and he’d been all over these mountains transporting and selling ice. It was unnerving.

Anna, of course, was as far from unnerved as it was possible to be. “Oh, I’m gonna talk to my sister,” she said lightly.

“That’s your plan?” Kristoff demanded. “ _Just_ that? My ice business is riding on you talking to your sister.”

“Yup!”

Olaf turned to them, his snowman body continuing to walk forward as his head peered up at them. “That sounds nice! I bet Queen Elsa’s the nicest, gentlest, warmest person ever.” He blinked as he realized he’d stopped moving, despite his legs continuing to walk. He looked down at where his midsection was pierced through by one of the icicles. “Oh. I’ve been impaled.”

A loud roar and an even louder boom from the north peak of the mountain distracted Kristoff as he gingerly pulled Olaf’s torso off the icicle and placed it back on his lower limbs. “What was that?”

Anna was peering around the corner of the icicle-laden mound and made a small sound. “Um… Kristoff, you’re from around here, right?”

“Close enough.”

“Is this normal?” Anna asked as Kristoff and Olaf joined her. “Or is this an avalanche?”

Krisoff’s eyes widened as he took in the huge expanse of snow that had detached from the side of the mountain and was hurtling down towards them. “Avalanche! Definitely an avalanche!” He grabbed Anna’s hand. “Come on!”

She kept up with him running full out, which was pretty impressive for a castle-bred princess, he thought. Of course, that didn’t stop her from talking. Kristoff was beginning to believe that nothing could ever stop Anna from talking.

“Wait, why are we going this way? That’s where the snow’s coming from!”

They had been a short dash from a cliff-face, one that jutted up and out and had many small pockets and caves. Kristoff was hoping to shelter in one of those caves, or at least huddle in the cover of the cliff itself. But he had no intention of explaining any of that to Anna, as it would waste valuable energy that could better be spent racing towards safety and looking for hiding places.

“Kristoff! Are you even listening to me?”

Kristoff yanked Anna against him as he squeezed through two sharp boulders at the cliff base. She squeaked adorably and batted at his hands, which he ignored in favour of covering her head with his hands and forcing her to duck down as the sound of the avalanche growled above them, followed by the sounds of thick ice sheets and compressed snow crashing around less than an armspan away from them. He just hoped Sven had gotten to safety in time.

It was over as suddenly as it had started and, in the deafening silence that followed, Kristoff realized he was half wrapped around Anna, his heart racing, his breath coming in short pants, and she…

…kinda smelled nice. Which was a stupid thing to notice, but Kristoff’s brain wasn’t working at its best after coming down from full panic mode.

“If id ober?” Anna asked, muffled against Kristoff’s chest.

“It’s over,” Kristoff assured her, gently detangling himself, unable to stop his hands from running over her shoulders and arms to make sure she was safe and whole. He pulled away as soon as he noticed what he was doing – he could get in serious trouble for molesting a princess. And besides, there were more important things to think about. “Sven?” He wriggled out of the crevice he’d stuck them in, looking for his reindeer. “Sven!?”

A soft whuff and the clatter of hooves from the side reassured Kristoff that Sven was safe even before he saw him. “Buddy!” Kristoff embraced Sven tightly. “Where’d you hide?”

“Over here!” Olaf called, waving. “Also, there’s a staircase that’s still intact, if you guys wanted to keep going towards the northern peak.”

Kristoff looked over at Anna, whose jaw was set and determined. He sighed.

“Yeah, we still wanna go.”

The avalanche hadn’t done as much damage as Kristoff would have thought. From the top of the staircase it seemed as though the snow had only just fallen over the cliff and stopped, not even encroaching into the surrounding forest, as if a protective field had kept the sphere of damage isolated to this area alone. As for the cause of the avalanche, however…

Kristoff was certain there hadn’t been an ice castle on this peak last week. And, even if there had been, it certainly hadn’t been on _fire_.

Ice on fire. Fiery ice. It was oddly beautiful in a this-can’t-be-real-please-make-it-stop kind of way. The ice palace itself looked to have been well-appointed at one time, with towering spires and elegant frost patterns that matched the ice stairway. At least the bits that weren’t utterly demolished or, again, on _fire_. What kind of person built such beauty and then destroyed it as if it were nothing?

“Whoa,” Anna said, and Kristoff recanted his previous though; apparently there _were_ things so spectacularly peculiar that they stole the power of speech even from Anna.

Between the refracted light of the sun and the glow of the fire (green fire, mostly, which was also odd) Kristoff could make out the silhouettes of two people moving around each other in something that looked like a ritual dance or a fight, only at a significant distance from each other. There were silhouettes of other things as well, misshapen creatures that clashed and fought at close quarters, often to the destruction of one of them or some more of the ice castle, and then more would spring up in their place.

“Are you sure this is where your sister ran off to?” Kristoff asked numbly.

Anna just shook her head, staring at the battle in a silent, shocked awe.


	4. Curses Upon Curses

“Stop focusing on aesthetics and start focusing on functionality,” Loki barked at Elsa as another of his ice creatures tore through her snow monsters. “My intent is to kill you, to tear you asunder and take what is yours and make it mine. _Fight back_.”

Elsa grunted and spread her fingers in an expansive gesture that created ten more of her snow minions, one for each finger. Impressive, but soon she would learn how difficult it was to spread your attention so thinly through that many avatars. Loki was about to demonstrate that weakness by tearing her creatures apart, one by one, when he noticed movement and colour out of the corner of his eye. They had guests.

In the breadth of a moment, Loki disappeared from the semi-destroyed castle and reappeared at Anna’s side. She’d brought… friends. How quaint. “You really should start running.”

“Running? Where to? And, hey, aren’t you that guy from Tr–” Anna’s last question ended in a yelp as Kristoff dragged her off, yet again, just in time to avoid being squashed in the lumbering footsteps of a giant thing made out of snow and ice.

“Not ‘where to’, rather ‘what from’,” Loki corrected. “And the answer is… him.”

Olaf scurried between Anna and Kristoff and the monster. “Hey, Marshmallow! Your mother wears army boots and your father smells of cabbages.”

Loki blinked and looked down at the diminutive snowman, honestly perturbed. “What are you?”

“Hi! My name’s Olaf and I like warm hugs!”

“My name is Loki. And I… don’t, particularly.” As soon as the introduction was past Loki’s lips, the newly-dubbed Marshmallow backhanded him and he flew off the edge of the mountain. Anna gasped and Kristoff made a sharp inhalation that he’d deny until the end of his days was a shriek, and Olaf just waved good-bye.

“What an interesting guy.”

“Oh my goodness! Anna!” Elsa raced out of the castle, making some kind of gesture with her hands that had Marshmallow standing aside, at ease. “Are you okay?”

“Am I okay?” Anna repeated disbelievingly. “That thing just flung our houseguest off the mountain. What the heck is going on?” She remembered how Loki had suddenly appeared out of nowhere at their side, and her eyes widened. “Wait, does he do magic? Is what happened in Arendelle his fault?”

Elsa frowned. “What happened in Arendelle?” She blinked in disbelief as she noticed the snowman at Anna’s side. “ _Olaf_?”

“Hi! Do you remember me?” He sounded almost shy, his normally bright tones subdued. “You built me.”

“And you’re alive?”

“Um… I _think_ so?”

Anna stepped forward. “He’s just like the one we built as kids.”

“Very like,” Elsa mused, her eyes softening as she looked from Olaf to her sister. “We should talk.”

“About that Loki guy?” Anna asked. “Because I gotta say, Hans is much handsomer and better bred. And he doesn’t have evil magic.”

“Loki’s not evil,” Elsa protested without thinking before catching herself. After a moment, she decided a correction was likely in order. “…probably. Anyways, he’s just helping me learn to control my powers.”

Kristoff, from over by Sven where he had been listening, couldn’t stop himself from speaking up. “Loki? Like the god?”

Elsa looked at him as if noticing him for the first time. She’d noticed Olaf, who was must smaller and more camouflaged, but that was because he was an oddity. Kristoff just blended in as one of the help. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Kristoff, I’m ambivalent about hugs no matter what my adopted family might say, and if this really is Loki then that explains the hoopla Gothi and the others were in last winter.”

“It might, but then again trolls are notoriously superstitious,” Loki said casually, standing beside Kristoff as if he’d always been there. “In the meantime, we should probably leave the ladies to their discussion.” He bowed shallowly to Elsa and nodded to Anna, whose mouth had dropped open in unadulterated shock. Elsa pulled Anna into the castle, leaving Loki to deal with the others. Or, from another perspective, leaving the others to deal with Loki.

Anna looked around the castle, admiring the remaining elegant swirls and arches that were left untouched from the surrounding damage, which was impressive in its own way. “Wow. This place is amazing.”

“Thanks. Until yesterday, I hadn’t any idea what I was capable of,” Elsa said. “Loki tried to tell me, but I think even he was surprised when he first got here.”

Anna hummed nervously. “I don’t think it’s this palace that impressed him.” Elsa looked over at her, one eyebrow raised curiously, and Anna backed down, intimidated. “I mean… you look beautiful. It’s a good look.”

Elsa smiled. “I’m pretty sure he didn’t even notice that.” He certainly hadn’t made any concessions to her new dress and cape when he’d attacked her. “I have to admit that it was nice being treated like that, rather than like a delicate flower.”

“Ooh, who’s falling in love at first sight now?” Anna teased.

Elsa rolled her eyes. “Loki’s been tutoring me in magic for months. And I’m _not_ in love with him.”

“What _ever_ you say,” Anna said, strutting a little in her sure knowledge. “Just make sure he’s consort material before you marry him.”

“I’m not…” Elsa sighed. “This is ridiculous, Anna. You came here for a reason, didn’t you?” Anna nodded. “Then get to it and leave.”

“…leave? I just got here.”

“And now you can tell everyone that I’m not a danger to them,” Elsa said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just want to stay up here where I can be alone and free. As long as everyone stays away from this mountain peak, they’ll be safe from me.”

“…actually we’re not.”

Elsa frowned. “What do you mean, you’re not?”

“When you ran off, you kind of set off an eternal winter over Arendelle,” Anna explained. “Everything’s frozen over. Also, there was an avalanche, but I think that was more from whatever you two lovebirds were doing up here.”

“We’re not…” Elsa shook off the unimportant part of Anna’s news. “Everything’s frozen over?”

“It’s okay,” Anna said. “You can just unfreeze it.”

“No I can’t, I don’t know how,” Elsa retorted, a tendril of fear creeping up from her stomach. “All I wanted was to be left alone, but I can’t even have that!”

Anna stepped forward. “Calm down, Elsa. We can work this out.”

Elsa turned away, her arms wrapped around her stomach. “Work what out? I’ve condemned my own country to an eternal winter, in front of all of our major trading partners. Even if I can fix that, the diplomatic fall-out will be huge, and I don’t know how to make things warm!”

“You just… take away the cold,” Anna said. Elsa snorted. “People are suffering, Elsa. You _have_ to stop this.” Elsa curled up away from Anna who approached her, determined to convince her sister to make things right. “You did this, and you’re the only one who can undo it. C’mon, Elsa…” She reached out and grasped Elsa’s shoulder.

Elsa whirled around, her arm outstretched defensively. “I can’t!” Neither sister saw the burst of icy energy that radiated from Elsa and slammed straight into Anna’s heart but Loki, leading Kristoff and Olaf up the stairs, did.

When they had been training, Loki had pieced together the entire story of what had happened when Elsa and Anna were young. Elsa’s power had struck Anna’s head and it had knocked her unconscious, nearly killing her. The magic of the trolls had been adequate to revive her, but not completely – the memory of magic also had to be removed from Anna, and her hair still had the white shock from that incident. The head was one thing, however; the heart another. As far as Loki was aware, with Elsa’s level of power, there was no magic on Midgard (other than her own, of course) strong enough to reverse what she’d done.

Loki’s magic, on the other hand, was easily powerful enough to save Anna. But why? This was so much more interesting.

“Just leave,” Elsa said, her voice quavering with residual fear.

“Not without you,” Anna said determinedly. “I’m not leaving you here.”

“Yes you are,” Elsa said, her voice firming. “You still need to find a way to fix Arendelle.”

Loki slipped between Elsa and Anna, smiling unkindly at Anna. “Indeed. I highly recommend a strategic withdrawal. Before the option is taken out of your hands.”

Kristoff placed a restraining hand on Anna’s shoulder which she promptly ignored as she attempted to stomp up to Loki. “What do you mean by that, you snot-nosed little–” Her voice cut off as the floor fell from beneath her, leaving behind a short-distance portal that Loki had whipped up. Its other entrance was close enough to the trolls that they should find their way there eventually.

The palace, what was left of it, cracked and darkened as Elsa’s powers continued to escape her control. Loki sighed, belatedly realizing that power and skill were meaningless here – Elsa’s problem wasn’t controlling her magic. It was controlling her reactions to her emotions.

This could be interesting in itself. Loki hadn’t seen a sorcerer go berserk before, although he’d heard of it – mighty magic-wielders who flared and burnt out, often taking entire realms out with them. While such a result would technically be a failure on his part, in teaching and in controlling Elsa, it would be… interesting.

“Your sister has a point,” Loki said gently, watching Elsa stiffen defensively. He waited for the outburst that would have come from Thor had anyone suggested that Loki might have a point, but it never came. Elsa was more controlled than _that_ , at least. “Your country and your people, people your parents expected you to protect, are in danger. What do you plan to do?”

Elsa turned to him and it was only the months spent sharing secrets that let to her admitting, “I don’t know.”

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Kristoff had been disoriented and lost enough times to be used to suddenly realizing he was somewhere he recognized. But rarely was that place he recognized in the distant shadow of the place he’d just been in. At least Sven was with them.

“How did we…”

“Ugh! Where is that smarmy, interfering country peasant?” Anna raved, her fists up ready for a fight, her eyes darting around. “Who does he think he is, interrupting me and Elsa and… and transporting us… down a mountain… This is magic too, right?”

Kristoff nodded dumbly. He knew when he was outclassed and, between the princesses and the possibility of gods and even the talking snowman, he had to admit that this might be one of those times. “Look, Anna, this has been… um, fun… but I think we should–” He cut himself off, staring at Anna’s head. “What’s with your hair?”

Anna’s eyes narrowed. “Careful there, big guy. I’m spoiling for a fight.”

“No, it’s turning white.” Kristoff frowned. “Did that Loki guy do anything to you?”

“N-no,” Anna said, holding her new white streak in her hand. “I don’t think so.”

“I don’t like this,” Kristoff said darkly. “C’mon, I’m taking you to get help.”

Their walk was mostly grim until Anna drew her cloak tighter around herself, shivering. Kristoff noticed immediately. “Are you cold?”

“A little,” Anna admitted. It wasn’t any colder than it had been when the cloak had been more than enough warmth but now, somehow, there was a chill that Anna could feel deep into her bones.

“We’re almost there,” Kristoff promised her helplessly. “I just… I just want to warn you that when we get there things’ll get a little…” He laughed nervously. “The people who raised me can be a little bit inappropriate… and loud… very loud… they’re also stubborn at times, and a little overbearing. And heavy. Really, really heavy. But they’re good people.”

Anna smiled at Kristoff’s description. “They sound wonderful.”

“I’m going to remind you that you said that after you meet them,” Kristoff muttered, taking a deep breath. “Well, we’re here.”

They were in a clearing surrounded by a stone circle, filled with moss-covered rocks. Anna had to admit that the unnatural winter didn’t seem to have touched this place, but otherwise it seemed completely unremarkable. She looked around for any sign of Kristoff’s friends, but could only see Kristoff, moving amongst the rocks, greeting them.

Olaf sidled up to Anna. “He’s _crazy_.”

“Uh-huh,” Anna managed to get out. She’d trusted Kristoff with her life, following his directions and his lead, and it turned out he was completely delusional. Well, perhaps a life of solitary ice hunting had made him this way. It was perfectly reasonable. Anna backed up a step. “I’m… uh… I’m just gonna go…”

The earth didn’t move under her feet but, as one, the rocks started rolling. There was no sign of an earthquake or another avalanche. Nothing but the rocks moving seemingly of their own will, converging on Kristoff.

Anna didn’t know why she was surprised. This wasn’t even the most ridiculous thing to happen in the last few hours.

Maybe because up until a few minutes ago Kristoff had seemed so _normal_. Watching rocks roll uphill towards him was more unexpected than Loki popping up from nowhere or Elsa building a castle of ice, because Kristoff was supposed to be like Anna. Normal.

One by one the rocks unfolded, revealing heads, arms, legs and odd tufts of green hair. “Kristoff’s back!”

A general cheer rose up from the tiny rock-creatures, and Anna realized with some relief that Kristoff wasn’t magical at all. These were… “Trolls.”

The moment the word was past her lips, the trolls turned towards her, gracing her with the attention of the entire tribe. The first troll that had welcomed Kristoff spoke again, just as excited. “And he brought a girl!” The trolls cheered again and rushed Anna forward, towards Kristoff.

“What’s going on?” Anna asked, bewildered, yet charmed.

Kristoff shrugged. “I’ve mostly just learned to roll with it.” Anna giggled at the small pun.

“Oh, you two look so lovely together,” one of the trolls gushed. “A match made in–”

“We’re not together,” Anna and Kristoff said together.

“I’m engaged,” Anna explained further.

Kristoff bit back a snort at that – engaged to a guy she’d just met. In fact, if what Anna had said was right, she’d spent more time with Kristoff than with her fiancé. Still, it wasn’t like she was wrong, and it wasn’t like Kristoff had a chance. Or was interested. Right. “What we’re really here for is to get Anna looked at. She’s under some sort of curse or something.”

“The curse of not knowing a good catch when she sees one?”

“No, the curse of… her hair’s turning white and she’s really cold.”

The trolls looked at one another. “That’s not any curse that I’ve heard of,” one of them said. “Grand Pabbie might know.”

“Is he here?”

The sea of trolls parted and a large boulder rolled through, unfurling into a grizzled old troll with an green fringe. Anna could practically feel the age and wisdom and power radiate from him.

“There’s strange magic here,” the old troll intoned.

“Grand Pabby,” Kristoff said, sounding relieved. “Can you help?”

Grand Pabby ignored Kristoff, although not unkindly. “Come here, child.” He beckoned and opened his hands. Anna bent down and placed her hands in his. He looked severely concerned. “Anna, your life is in danger. There is ice in your heart, put there by your sister. If not removed, to solid ice will you freeze, forever.”

“What? No, I thought Loki…”

“Loki?” Grand Pabbie’s expression went from concerned to outright frightened.

One of the trolls moved closer. “He came through a few months ago. He didn’t make any threats or seem concerned with us at all.”

“That doesn’t mean that he has no ill intentions towards us, Gothi. He has long been known as a trickster.”

“Buuut… he’s not responsible for that ice in my heart, right?” Anna asked.

Kristoff nodded. “One thing at a time, maybe. Can you remove it?”

“I cannot,” Grand Pabby said, shaking his head sadly. “If it was her head, that would be easy. But only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.”

“Like true love’s kiss?” Anna said, shivering and losing her balance as a wave of cold spread through her.

Kristoff scooped her up in his arms. “We’ve got to get you to Prince Hans.” Anna’s hair had turned almost completely white, and she felt far colder in Kristoff’s arms than she should have. He could barely make out the fact that she was nodding in agreement against his chest, she was shivering so hard. “C’mon, Sven.”

Sven stood still while Kristoff hoisted Anna onto his back, climbing behind her to steady and secure her. “Let’s go, Olaf!”

“Right!” Olaf cheered. “Let’s go kiss Hans! Who’s Hans?”

“Wait,” Grand Pabby said, halting Sven before he took off. “You must be sure to be cautious around Loki. Offer him no insult or harm, but offer him your trust and faith even less. He has a purpose here, and it is beyond what we mere mortals can fathom. Neither aid him nor hinder him, unless it becomes a matter of life or death.”

Kristoff nodded sharply. “Got it. Thanks.” Loki was bad news. This surprised precisely no one.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Elsa panicked quietly while Loki magicked up a chair to sit in and, after watching Elsa pace and mutter to herself got old, a book to read.

Around them, the castle slowly rebuilt itself using Elsa’s powers, only now it was more like a fortress, heavily armed with ice spikes and slippery edges of ledges that rose over uneven floors. Loki didn’t mind the new décor, but he had a feeling Elsa might, once she noticed.

It was doubtful that she would, at least not soon. She seemed contained inside her own head, imprisoned by her fear and the conflicting directives her parents had given her. Loki heard her mutter ‘Control’, ‘Conceal it’, even ‘Don’t feel’. It was pointless; Midgardians, Asgardians, possibly even Jötnar couldn’t stop feeling. Emotions were a hallmark of a higher quality of being. Creatures without emotion couldn’t wield magic or bring together civilizations. Elsa’s attempts at suppressing her feelings were only hurting her more.

As much as it bothered Loki to see Elsa’s suffering; and it did, more than he’d expected; he knew he had to let her get through this on her own. She had been raised by well-meaning but ignorant parents who had told her how to feel. The last thing she needed was someone else giving her that same advice, only from an opposing perspective. Elsa needed to figure this out on her own, which was _incredibly_ annoying since Loki had the answer and the answer was simple and all Elsa needed to do was think for three seconds rather than flailing.

Loki turned the page of his book. Elsa gave a soft sob and then shook her head viciously, as if punishing herself for feeling bad. It was exasperating; how was this so easy to see as an outsider and yet so impossible for Elsa to grasp?

“ _We are here to find Princess Anna. Be on guard, but no harm is to come to the Queen. Do you understand_?”

Elsa didn’t stop pacing. Likely, due to her inferior human senses, she hadn’t heard the authoritative voice right outside the ruined castle. Loki decided not to interrupt her introspection and closed his book before teleporting down to the base of the staircase Elsa had built. Everyone’s attention was on the human boy Loki remembered seeing with Princess Anna. Hans… of the something Isles. A minor prince, as far as Loki recalled. Fortunately, that meant no one saw him appearing out of thin air.

Also, it meant that when Hans turned around, his handsome jaw set in determination, Loki got a lovely view of his widening eyes and fleeting expression of fear before his hand flew to his sword hilt and he shifted into an attack stance. “Who are you?”

“No one of importance,” Loki said smoothly. “But you’re trespassing. You should leave.”

Hans stepped forward. “This land belongs to Arendelle, and I’ve been placed in charge of Arendelle’s care. Now, please, stand aside so that I can execute my duty.”

Noble sentiment. Loki had a few thoughts about what kind of ‘duty’ required a sword, and they weren’t nearly as noble. “You stated that you came here looking for Princess Anna. She’s not here.”

“We’ll be the judges o’that,” one of the red-clad burley men said, moving forward in an overtly threatening way. Loki sighed; it reminded him of home. In the worst way.

“You’ll leave. Now.” Loki smiled, hard and sharp. “I won’t repeat myself a third time.”

“Is Queen Elsa here?” Hans asked. “Can we talk to her about her sister?”

Loki sighed. “Discourse is not leaving.” His hand shot out, covered in an ice blade. “I did say I wouldn’t repeat myself.”

“Oi! He’s a witch,” the smaller red-clad man said. He and his companion immediately lifted their crossbows.

Loki snorted to himself – as if that would work. He turned his attention to Hans. “Your princess is in another castle. This is your last chance to leave with all your appendages intact.” He sensed the door to the castle opening behind him, and fought the urge to roll his eyes. Elsa had the _worst_ timing.

“Queen Elsa!” Hans yelled ignoring Loki, the little parvenu. “Have you fallen under the control of this evil wizard? Arendelle suffers under a dark spell, and needs to be rescued! Don’t be the monster they fear you are; be their hero!”

Loki shot a barrage of icicles at Hans’s feet, forcing him back. He turned to Elsa, facing her while arrogantly keeping his back to every armed man on the mountain. “He’s right, you know. They fear you, even more than you fear yourself. They won’t understand, they’ll call you ‘monster’, and the fact that you’ve directly harmed no one, even when threatened, will mean nothing. But you can still choose them, choose to renounce your powers and hide them and hope that everyone eventually forgets. Or you can choose me, and harness your powers so that you can use them as you will.”

Elsa slipped out of the castle, her gown glittering in the light of the aurora borealis. One of the idiots behind Loki let loose a crossbow bolt at her, which she instinctively froze mid-air, before taking a deep breath and striding forward, every inch a Queen.

“I appreciate your concern, Prince Hans. But perhaps your efforts would be better put to use for my sister’s sake.” She reached out and Loki took her hand, wrapping them both in an illusion of invisibility, so they could watch the prince and his minions flail in confusion before turning around and heading back to the castle.

“He’s right, though,” Elsa said as soon as they were out of sight. “Arendelle _is_ suffering.”

Loki made a soft, thoughtful sound and transported them back to the castle, well before Hans and the others returned. “Look around. It’s not so bad. Yes, it’s unseasonal, but look at how clean and crisp everything looks under a new layer of snow. It’s certainly quieter and, with nothing else to do and no ships to leave on, this is the perfect chance to rope some of the more powerful conflicting dignitaries into serious talks.”

Elsa laughed, then looked ashamed at herself for laughing. “Stop that. You know just how bad this is – nothing will grow, the animals and people will starve. The amount of fires needed to keep warm will denude the surrounding forests in a few years, and no new trees will replace them. This has to stop.”

“Then stop it.”

“I _can’t_ ,” Elsa insisted, sounding close to the near-panic she’d gone through at Anna’s suggestions. Then she looked up at Loki, wide-eyed and hopeful. “Can you?”

Loki shook his head. “This is your doing, your country, and your duty, Elsa. You are strong and powerful. You shouldn’t rely on the gods for anything you can do yourself. The cost tends to be higher than you might expect.”

“Gods?” Elsa asked, incredulously. “You expect me to believe you’re _that_ Loki?”

Honestly, Loki mostly just expected her to believe he was refusing to help due to some noble reason. In truth, it was simply a lot harder to undo another’s spell. Elsa could break this winter with a single gesture. Loki would have to figure out the underpinnings and weave through the tapestry of the spell she had instinctively thrown over the entire country. Such effort could take _hours_.

“I’ll offer you this,” Loki said rather than respond to Elsa’s question. “You work on dispelling your magic, and I’ll quickly check through the city and ensure that no one has died or come to undue harm from your actions.”

Elsa looked briefly rebellious, then sighed. “I suppose that’s the most I can ask for. Thank you.”

“I will return,” Loki assured her. “Try to keep out of trouble until then.”

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

They’d lost Olaf just before the town limits but, as Sven careened towards the palace with Kristoff and Anna on his back, Kristoff reflected that it was probably for the best – he was returning an unconscious princess with more white hairs than she’d had when she left. A talking snowman would only distract from that.

The gates opened, likely because someone recognized Anna, and Sven galloped through, pulling up to a stop in front of the worried members of the royal staff awaiting her. “Please, someone help her.”

“Princess Anna!”

“…Gerda,” Anna said weakly, letting herself fall into the matronly arms of her caretaker. She looked up at Kristoff, with a faint smile. “Thank you.”

Kristoff nodded as she was led away, only remembering at the last moment to grab the arm of the steward. “You have to get her to Prince Hans immediately.”

“He’s not back yet,” the steward said apologetically, as if that was his fault. “But we’ll get her as warm as possible until he’s back.”

It would have to do. “Take care of her!” Kristoff called as the steward turned away.

“We will. Thank you.”

And with that, the gates closed, Kristoff was summarily dismissed, Anna was in good hands, and everything was as it should be.

Sven whimpered a little at the closed gates, looking at Kristoff as if asking him to fix this. Kristoff sighed. “I know, buddy, this doesn’t feel right, but…”

But Hans was Anna’s true love – she’d said so numerous times. They were even engaged. Anna was surrounded by people who cared for her. Kristoff was minus one sled and plus one talking snowman once they found Olaf.

Sven nudged Kristoff’s arm. “No, I don’t think we should go get her, we raced to get her _here_.” Sven huffed. “Well, that’s not how things are, Sven.” Kristoff felt a sharp jab of irritation at the whole thing. “You know what? Let’s leave the snowman to his own devices. It’s been just the two of us for years, and that’s always worked fine before.” He grabbed Sven’s bit and led him away from the gates. “We’ll be fine.”

It no longer felt like he was trying to reassure Sven. It felt completely like he was trying to reassure himself.


	5. Misunderstandings

Elsa sat in the storeroom, as far out of everyone’s way as she could get, and tried to figure out what she could do to stop this winter. She didn’t really remember how she’d caused it in the first place. All she remembered was that she had been scared and hurt and confused. She wasn’t hurt or confused anymore, and the only thing that scared her was the thought of this winter truly lasting forever. But none of that helped her figure out how to undo this.

She admitted to herself that she was hiding. She didn’t want to see the white rooftops and icy streets and gently falling snow. It was _June_ , there should have been sun or rain. The storeroom had no windows and was lit only by a single oil lamp, and the dankness fit Elsa’s mood perfectly. There was an answer, there had to be, but it felt like she would never find it.

In the midst of Elsa’s wallowing in her despair, the storeroom door flew open and the cook stormed in, muttering anxiously under her breath.

“Soup, I needs soup. Poor Princess Anna…”

 _Anna_. Elsa’s heart clenched at the sound of her sister’s name. Had she returned yet? Elsa was hidden by the shadows, but was tempted to come out and ask for answers. If Anna had returned, then what was all this panic about?

The cook found the ingredients she needed and stomped back out, leaving Elsa in dim silence. She hesitated a moment longer before creeping out, keeping a careful lookout for any of the palace servants. If Anna had returned, she would certainly have gone to her room to change. Elsa tiptoed down the corridor to their rooms until she heard voices coming from around the corner and ducked into an empty room.

Or, at least, a room she had thought was empty.

“Queen Elsa!”

Instinctively, Elsa’s frost-magic flared up. She whirled and confronted a surprised Hans, half out of his outerclothes, with his hands in the air. “Please, don’t!” Hans pleaded. “I just want to talk.”

Elsa controlled her magic the way her parents had taught her; by tamping it down. “What about?”

Hans relaxed a little, but still kept a wary eye on Elsa. “I know this winter wasn’t intentional. Your sister had faith in you, and I have faith in her. If you just brought back summer…”

“I can’t,” Elsa said, less anxious and more irritated by now at the unending demands to do something she wasn’t capable of. “That’s not how this works.”

The hope in Hans’s eyes died a little, but his jaw set in determination. “Then we’ll deal with that. It’s possible that there is a limit to your power. We may have to move every living thing inland, or even further south. Or perhaps we can hire another sorcerer to undo the damage you’ve done.” Elsa winced at that, but Hans continued unaffected. “For now, we have to get your lords together and think of options.”

“Will they even sit with me?” Elsa asked harshly. She was a witch, surely they would sooner kill her than talk to her.

Hans shook his head. “I don’t know. They’re frightened, Queen Elsa, of your powers and of your anger. I don’t think they’d be willing to risk either without some warranty.”

“Like what?” Elsa asked, ignoring the fact that she’d never acted out of anger, only out of her own fear.

“If you were chained in the dungeon,” Hans said slowly, raising his hands again as Elsa stared at him in disbelief. “No, hear me out. If your powers were clearly locked away, then they’d listen. And you could probably convince them that you meant no harm and that you’re willing to help as much as you can. If I could guarantee their safety, I could probably get most of the lords here to come to you.”

Elsa knew this was a bad idea. The gloves that had controlled most of her powers hadn’t nearly suppressed them all. Even with her hands covered, she could still call up snow flurries and create ice wherever she stepped. Chaining and restraining her and pretending that such actions could make her harmless was close to a lie. But Hans was probably right; it was the only way.

“Alright. But hurry, every moment wasted is a moment a life could be saved.”

The only time Elsa had been to the dungeon when her parents had been alive was with Anna, when they were twelve and ten, respectively. Their father had emphasized that a good kingdom was built on a fair, equitable punishment system, and that the dungeons were mostly a relic of bygone times. The only people that were to be imprisoned there, he said, were traitors to the crown, whose actions had threatened all of Arendelle.

It was oddly fitting that Elsa’s second visit was as that hypothetical traitor. Despite wearing the crown, her actions had indeed threatened all of Arendelle.

Hans led her to one of the cells and opened the door. Elsa managed to keep her chin up and her posture regal as she sat down on the cold stone bench. Hans looked sympathetic but unmoved as he reached for the hand shackles.

“A-are those really necessary?” Elsa asked, hating the quiver in her voice.

Hans looked torn, but nodded. “I’m afraid so. We all saw how everything you touched turned to ice.” Elsa winced again at the memory. “This is the only way they’ll feel safe with you. The only way their fear of you won’t overcome their desire to compromise.”

Elsa had a moment of weakness, closing her eyes and wishing someone was here to make things better; her mother, her father, Anna, Loki… but they weren’t. It was just her and the eminently practical Hans. “I’m sorry I rejected your advances on my sister. It was nothing personal, you seem like a good man, it’s just…”

“I understand,” Hans said hastily. “It was the timing. I can be patient.”

“Good, I’m glad,” Elsa said, hoping out her hands for those hateful iron gloves. “Please hurry back with as many as the lords and council members as you can.”

Hans snapped on the shackles and stood, smiling down at Elsa, looking somewhat eerie in the odd lighting. “I give you my word.”

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

“He’s returned! Prince Hans!”

Hans turned towards the steward’s voice, fixing a smile on his face. “Kai, was it? I need to ask you–”

“No time, My Prince!” Kai grabbed Hans’s hand, ignoring all sense of propriety. “Princess Anna has urgent need of you.”

“Then take me to her now,” Hans ordered, despite the fact that Kai was already leading him to her.

She was lying on a couch in front of a roaring fire, a bowl of steaming soup cooling in front of her as she shivered and shook. “Anna!” The door closed behind him as he rushed to her side, cupping her hands in his. “You’re so cold.”

“Hans.” The sight of him seemed to ignite something inside Anna, and she came more alive. “Hans!” She clutched weakly at him. “You need to kiss me.”

“…what?”

“Now!” Anna tried to grip his neck, but her fingers shook too uncontrollably. “Please!”

Hans stared at her white hair and odd behaviour, confused. “What happened?”

“Elsa struck me with her powers,” Anna explained. “She froze my heart, and only an act of true love can save me.”

“She… you said she’d never hurt you.”

“I was wrong.”

Hans nodded. “You were, Anna. You were wrong about a lot of things.”

“I was, I know, but I need–”

“True love’s kiss, yes, I heard,” Hans said, gently pulling Anna’s hands off him. “Or else you’re doomed to perish. Pity for you how well that works in with my plans.”

Anna looked up at him, hope still shining from her confused eyes. “What?”

“As thirteenth in line in my own kingdom, I didn’t stand a chance to inherit anything more than an empty title. I knew I’d have to marry into the throne somewhere else.”

“What are you talking about?”

Hans shrugged and stood. “Elsa would have been preferable, but she was untouchable. While you, on the other hand…” He smiled. “You were so desperate to be loved, you were even willing to marry me hours after we’d first met.” Anna’s mouth opened in protest, but Hans spoke over her, picking up the cistern of Anna’s soup and walking towards the fireplace. “I figured, after we were married, you and your sister would have a little… accident.” He poured the soup over the fire, extinguishing it.

“Hans, no…”

“But this works even better,” Hans said. “All I have to do is wait you out and deal with Elsa. No one will look too deeply into the deaths of the Ice Witch and her clueless sister, especially if Prince Hans, the hero who clothed and warmed the populous and guarded them against evil, assures them that he and Princess Anna made their marriage vows just before her untimely end.”

Anna’s attention was fractured by the pain and cold she was experiencing, but she zeroed in on the most important thing Hans had said. “You’re going to deal with Elsa? How?”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about it,” Hans said, leaving Anna alone in the darkness. “You should be long dead before it becomes an issue.” He closed and locked the door behind him.

It was a gamble, but not much of one. Anna was too weak to get off the couch and without the heat of the fire to warm her, her frozen heart would certainly overcome her in a matter of minutes. Hours at most. All that was left was dealing with Elsa, who had willingly trussed herself up for the slaughter. Hans gave the nod to the guard who had accompanied him and smiled to himself as the guard went off to do his duty. All that was left was pasting a tragic mask over his face and informing the other lords that he would be reluctantly willing to take responsibility for Arendelle.

He turned towards the meeting room that held the other lords when the back of his neck tingled. He frowned and turned around, one hand on his concealed dagger, and was blinded by a rush of multicoloured light streaming down from the sky.

By the time Hans’s eyes had adjusted from the sharp brightness, the window to the roof was open and a figure was standing in front of him, dressed in close-fitting metal and leather armour, a red cape, and a winged helmet.

Hans had twelve older brothers. He was a master at knowing when he was outmatched. He held out his hands and focused on looking as unimposing as possible. “Welcome to Arendelle.”

“Greetings,” the figure intoned, looking somewhere over Hans’s shoulder as if Hans was beneath his notice. “I seek my brother.”

“Your brother?” Hans asked, intimidated but getting irritated by this man’s overbearing attitude. “I can ask around, see if any strange blond-haired giants have been seen–”

“What did you call him?” Now the man’s tone was outright aggressive, and his fists clenched over the hilt of a massive hammer. Hans backed up, holding his hands up. “Loki is no giant! He is an Asgardian Prince, as am I.”

“As… where?” Hans asked. “I know all of the kingdoms within horse or boat ride, and I know I’ve never heard of a Prince Loki, nor of Asgardians.”

The man huffed. “Of course not, tiny peon. We are far beyond your ken, and I have no inclination towards furthering your education, other than to tell you that my name is Thor. Loki is yea tall,” he raised his had to around the level of his eyes, still far taller than most men Hans knew, “with dark hair and green eyes.”

There was only one man who fit that description perfectly, and Hans remembered him with crystal-clear certainty, easily able to visualize him standing atop an ice staircase with icy blades covering his hands, sneeringly threatening Hans and his men while Elsa cowered behind him. “What would you do if you found him?”

“He is to return home. Our father has had enough of his dallying with you mortals and will speak with him, willingly or not.”

So, big blond and burley intended to take Elsa’s witch-ally away. Hans had no trouble with that. In fact, if he played his cards right, he could deflect what little suspicion might have been cast his way for the sisters’ deaths onto Loki. “I know the man of whom you speak,” Hans said.

“Take me to him,” Thor demanded.

Hans put on his regretful look #6: ‘I-want-to-help-but-I-can’t’. “He’s not here. The last I saw he was on a mountainside, attacking me and my men in the execution of our legal duties.” Thor’s face screwed into a scowl, and Hans knew it was directed at Loki, not at him, which gave him the courage continue. “In fact, he’s been doing a lot of damage and mischief since he’s gotten here.”

“Tell me,” Thor said. “Father should know what messes Loki has gotten into now.”

And Hans was more than willing to fill Thor in.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

The castle was quiet when Loki returned. He had mostly good news – the humans had been resourceful and banded together, living two or three families in a single house to conserve fuel, sleeping all the children together to maintain what warmth they could. A few already ill or elderly people had taken turns for the worse, but that could have just been time passing, although the bone-deep cold certainly hadn’t helped. Overall, very little damage had been done by Elsa’s magic’s little tantrum. Yet.

He was eager to share this news with her and to find out if she’d started to come to the correct conclusions yet. Even if all she had discovered was that her fear had been the trigger, Loki could work with that. But Elsa wasn’t where he’d left her.

There were only two obviously occupied rooms in the palace – the meeting room that housed the lords and dignitaries as they tried not to panic and waited for someone to come up with a brilliant idea and save them, and a drawing room where Anna lay freezing to death on a couch, her hair completely white. So the trolls had been essentially useless after all. Loki considered racing to her rescue, but he honestly cared little for her. Her magic was deeply latent and feeble, like most humans’, and nothing at all like her sister’s. Elsa’s potential held much more interest to Loki. Of course, if Anna died there was always the chance that Elsa would self-destruct and then what would Loki entertain himself with?

He’d almost decided to help her when the snowman picked open the lock to her door, immediately lighting the fire and warming her body. That would buy her a few more hours, and Loki could tend to other things – there was no point in racing to the rescue if you weren’t in the nick of time, after all. He turned his attention back to looking for Elsa and was just about to explore the more hidden areas of the castle, including the dungeons, when he caught a glimpse of Hans and Thor, speaking together with unnerving solemnity.

He froze in place, too stunned to react for the briefest of moments. It was long enough for Thor’s heightened hunter’s instincts to flare and for him to lift his head and see his little brother. So-called. Loki fleetingly considered just turning tail and running, abandoning Elsa and Anna to their fate, racing through the Nine Realms one step ahead of the Allfather’s minions.

“Loki!” In only a few bounding steps, Thor was in front of him and any hope for a graceful exit died. “What is this I hear of you beguiling the fair queen of this Realm?”

“It’s only a country, Thor,” Loki said, already exasperated. “And I haven’t _beguiled_ anyone.”

“The Queen was not known to use magic before you came,” Hans accused Loki. “I know you were here for weeks before the coronation–”

“Months, actually,” Loki said, not even bothering to look at the mortal, his attention still fully focused on Thor. “And what happened was none of my doing. What purpose would it serve to discredit the only tolerable person in this entire damnable Realm?”

Thor shook his head. “I won’t bandy about motivations and goals with you, Loki. You have far too often acted only for your own entertainment rather than for any measurable gain.” …true enough. “The fact remains that you fled your own feast, hid from Heimdall’s gaze, and only trouble has come to this… _country_ since your arrival. What am I supposed to believe?”

“Perhaps your brother over some random mortal,” Loki snapped, remembering even as he said the words that he wasn’t actually Thor’s brother and Thor probably knew that and if he pointed that out now, Loki realized he was fully willing to forget all attempts at maintaining his dignity and poise in favour of getting away from Thor as soon as possible.

“This random mortal has presented himself with more honour and dignity than you ever have,” Thor shot back, and all Loki could feel was relief that Thor hadn’t pointed out his error. “His concern for his ruler does him credit. Your callous disregard for Asgard and her king and queen marks you as the most ungrateful whelp that has ever come from the Nine Realms. Your mischief here is done, Loki. Come home now.” Thor reached out and clasped Loki on the shoulder.

Loki shrugged Thor off, his shoulder uncomfortably warm where Thor’s hand had been. “I’m not going anywhere. Not until I find Elsa.”

“Who?”

“The queen,” Hans explained. “She had agreed to remain out of sight in the dungeons until the other lords could be convinced to talk with her. I…” He looked away. “I can only hope, now that she’s willing to cooperate, that Loki won’t have tried to make sure she’ll never say what he did to her.”

Thor scowled at Hans. “Use the appropriately respectful address for my brother. He may be a fool, but he is a prince of Asgard.”

Loki ignored them both, focused on Hans’s subtle jab which sounded more like a prophecy than a casual barb. “What have you done?”

“What?” Thor asked, incredulously. “Nothing, I only just arrived.”

“Not you, you lout.” Loki pushed past Thor and grabbed Hans by the front of his shirt. “ _What have you done to Elsa_?”

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

“Queen Elsa.”

Elsa looked up at the sound of her name, feeling oddly relieved by the company. She’d thought that she enjoyed solitude and quiet, but it turned out that being forced to be alone for an undetermined amount of time was much worse than choosing to be by herself for a few hours or even days. “Here!” She tried to curb her enthusiasm. “…naturally. It’s not as if I could have moved if I’d had a choice.”

Only one guard stepped into her cell. Hans and the other lords were nowhere it sight, and the disappointment Elsa felt twisted in her stomach like frost creeping up into her throat. Hans had left less than half an hour ago, and was likely still talking with the other lords. Hopefully, it was just too early.

“Your Majesty, Prince Hans is still in talks with the other lords,” the guard said, and Elsa felt like a fool for even doubting it. “He apologizes for the delay and for not offering you any refreshment when you first arrived.”

Arrived. What a quaint way of describing her imprisonment. Elsa inclined her head, hiding her internal thoughts. “Prince Hans’s courtesy has been as impeccable as the situation allows.”

The guard placed a tall glass of liquid on the stone bench Elsa had been sitting on. “Nevertheless, should you get thirsty, please help yourself.” He glanced at the manacles that encased Elsa’s hands and she shot him a wry look. He smiled and proffered a long, thin glass tube which he slid into the liquid, letting it rest against the side of the glass with a soft clink. “A drinking straw, Your Majesty. You merely suck on one end to bring the drink into your mouth.” He smiled, and there was an edge to it that Elsa didn’t like, but she merely smiled politely in return.

“Thank you. And be sure to pass on my thanks to your prince.”

“Oh, you’ll likely see him soon enough, Majesty.” The guard bowed and backed out of the room. Elsa watched him go, somewhat perturbed, and eyed the drink. It _had_ been a while since she’d eaten anything, and she _was_ rather thirsty…

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Olaf had started the fire and dragged Anna close to it, and she could feel the heat from the fire on her skin and clothes, but it never seemed to seep more than skin deep.

“So,” Olaf asked innocently as Anna huddled under her cloak. “Where’s Hans? What happened to your kiss?”

“I was wrong about him,” Anna admitted. “It wasn’t true love.” She looked at Olaf, shadows from the fire dancing across his snowy face. “Please Olaf, you can’t stay here; you’ll melt.”

Olaf shook his head. “I am not leaving here until we find some other act of true love to save you…” He plopped himself down on the ground beside Anna, looking pensive for a very brief moment before turning to her. “Do you happen to have any ideas?”

“I don’t even know what love is,” Anna admitted. Elsa had been right. She was _always_ right. It was actually kind of annoying, even despite everything else that had happened.

Olaf stood and placed his wooden hands on Anna’s shoulder in a gesture of comfort. “That’s okay, I do…” He wrapped Anna’s cloak tighter around her. “Love is putting someone else’s needs before your own. Like, you know, how Kristoff brought you back here to Hans and left you forever.”

That was true. Sacrificial love, letting what you loved go and waiting for it to return, if it truly loved you…

Wait. “Kristoff loves me?” Anna couldn’t help the disbelief in her voice.

Olaf looked at her as if she was the simple fool in the room. “Wow, you really don’t know anything at all about love, do you?”

She was beginning to think that was true – enough people had told her so in the past few days, after all. “Help me up, Olaf. Please. I need to get to Kristoff.”

“Why?” Olaf asked. It was Anna’s turn to look at him like he should know better. Olaf brightened, suddenly excited. “Oh, oh, wait, oh, I _know_ why! There’s your act of true love, right there, giving everything up for you and asking nothing in return, a hero with his mighty reindeer steed! Come on, let’s go find that stinky animal! And Sven!”

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Loki had left Hans gibbering at the merest hint of his physical strength and stormed off towards the dungeons. He wasn’t worried about Elsa. He was… displeased at Hans’s presumption. If Elsa was lying dead in her cell, Loki would have lost nothing of any worth, he tried to convince himself. The only reason he was ignoring the few servants he passed and every guard stationed between him and Elsa was that he was displeased. At Hans. For interfering with Loki’s ally. Nothing to do with Elsa herself at all.

In all honesty, even he didn’t fully believe that anymore.

He was relieved that Thor and Hans had stayed back. He had no desire for Thor to see his attachment to this mortal witch with her ice magic and tendencies towards the colour blue. Given Loki’s heritage, such attention would open far too many unnerving questions. And as for Hans, Loki wasn’t entirely sure he wouldn’t just kill him the next time he saw him. Princess Anna might be upset (or not, given how she had nearly frozen to death on a couch while her ‘beloved’ chatted with Thor) but Loki’s patience with Hans had run out.

It didn’t escape his attention that most of the guards were Hans’s men, wearing their prince’s colours. Loki gave them no notice and they, sensing something beyond their ken, nervously let him pass without challenge, even up to Elsa’s very cell.

The door was locked. Loki pushed it off its hinges and walked over it. “Elsa.”

“Loki!” Elsa looked up at him, away from a drink that had been left at her side. “What are you doing here? Hans is bringing my advisors in as soon as he can convince them I’m safe to be around.”

Rather than replying, Loki wove a quick little spell that flared bright green and then died down, apart from the green aura around the glass sitting next to Elsa. Loki picked it up. “Who gave this to you?”

“The guard,” Elsa said, eyes widened in fear as she realized that Loki was _furious_. “Why?”

Loki smashed the drink on the ground. “It’s poisoned.” He looked around the room. “There don’t seem to be any other hidden weapons or traps, though…”

“Wait. You can tell things like that with your magic?”

“Yes.”

Elsa swallowed, still somewhat intimidated by Loki’s anger, but driven by something even more important. “Can you teach me?”

Loki looked at her, and his anger faded away into an odd kind of bemusement. “You really are tenacious, aren’t you?”

Elsa smiled and then gasped as a realization hit her. “Prince Hans tried to have me poisoned!”

“Of course he did, misbegotten dungheap that he is,” Loki muttered.

“Prince Hans tried to poison me,” Elsa said softly, as the truth sank in. “He was never going to talk to my lords for me. Everyone still thinks I’m a monster and no one’s willing to listen…”

Loki sighed. “Whine later.” He ran his finger over the locking mechanism of her manacles and they broke open. Elsa took that in stride, rubbing her wrists as she stood up. “For now, we have to get you out of here.” He grasped her chin in one hand and peered closely at her, moving her head in one direction then another, acting more like a nanny looking for smudges of dirt than a jailbreaker.

“Loki, what are you doing?” Elsa asked, her voice slightly muffled by Loki’s manhandling of her.

“Don’t talk,” Loki said, releasing her face and then turning her around by her shoulders, spending less time assessing her back and sides. “Right.” He let Elsa go and waved a hand at the bench. Before Elsa’s very eyes, another Elsa came into being, so pale she looked almost grey, and limp as if deeply asleep or…

“That’s what I would be like, if I’d drunk the poison.”

Loki nodded. “Very good,” he said in a clipped, impatient tone. He held out his hand, just as he had on the mountain top. “Now, are you ready to finish this?”

Elsa once again took his hand, regretting nothing. “I am.”

It turned out Loki could walk through walls. Elsa made a mental note to get him to teach _that_ to her as well.


	6. Confrontations

The city had a lot of protected areas where the snow hadn’t fallen so deeply or had been blown away. It wasn’t much for Kristoff, but it allowed Sven to munch away at overgrown lawns like the happiest reindeer Kristoff had ever seen. And, really, he was doing the owners a favour; once this snow melted, they’d have a perfectly cropped lawn waiting for them. It wasn’t like stealing at all.

Part of him wondered why they were still in town. He should have headed back home to the trolls as soon as he dropped Anna off, to ask their advice at best, or wait out the worst of this endless winter at worse. It was almost comforting, knowing that gods were involved. If Loki truly was a god, then the trolls could ask for aid from the other gods that had been friendlier to them. True, they hadn’t been seen for hundreds of years but, with Loki here, that was sure to change.

Not for the first time, Kristoff’s attention wandered back to the castle. He hoped Anna could cope with gods and goddesses. She seemed barely able to communicate with her fellow humans, and that was the opinion of a guy who’d been raised by trolls and whose best friend was a reindeer. He hoped she was okay.

With Hans. Despite having never met him, Kristoff kind of hated Hans. He was probably a handsome jerk, the kind with a ‘beauty mark’ that was really just some hideous mole, or a ‘strong jaw’ that was verging on a double chin. Or maybe he had hairy toes. Or a lisp. Whatever, that was Anna’s problem now. Kristoff was done with all that.

In fact, he was all done with everything. From now on out, it would be just him and Sven, the dynamic duo, as it always should have been. No princesses, no ice witches, no gods, no princes, no talking snowmen, just him and…

“Sven!” Kristoff yanked at Sven’s antlers. “How long have you been pretending to munch on grass?” There was a single clear patch that couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes to eat, while the rest remained untouched.

Sven grunted impatiently at Kristoff as if scolding him for being fooled by a simple reindeer. Kristoff sighed. “I’ve been a little distracted, buddy.”

With another impatient grunt, Sven butted his head towards Kristoff, nearly striking him with his antlers. “Hey!” Kristoff protested. “Watch it.” He shook his head. “What’s gotten into you?”

Sven bugled, which was a sound Kristoff hadn’t heard him make outside of mating season. It was aggressive and a little intimidating, and very out of place within Arendelle’s city limits.

“Calm down,” Kristoff said, extending his arms in a gesture for peace. “I can’t understand you when you get like this.”

Sven gave him a look of absolute animal disgust and rammed Kristoff out of the shelter of the wind-breaking houses, into the street and into full view of the castle.

“Hey! Quit it, you–” Kristoff cut himself off as he watched the wind and snow swirling over the castle, the currently gentle snowfall whipping itself up into a full-blown flurry. “What the…”

Anna was in there. And Hans, but at that moment, all Kristoff could think of was, “Anna!”

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

“It sure is getting blowier out here,” Olaf said casually, as if nothing was really wrong.

Of course there was nothing wrong for him; he was a snowman. Anna didn’t even have the energy to snap at him, she was so cold. She wrapped her cape tighter around her shivering body, but it didn’t seem to help much as the wind seemed to blow in every direction at once. Her shivering was out of control, and it affected her gait, making her slip a little with every step.

“I wonder where Kristoff is,” Olaf said, and Anna just wished he would stop talking – it was taking all her concentration just to stop herself from falling. “I mean, d’you think he stopped in for something to eat, or did he just go back to the trolls?”

“We’ll a-a-ask the gua-a-ards,” Anna said, her teeth chattering painfully.

Olaf beamed up at her. “Right! They’ll know! I mean, with everyone huddling inside away from this snowstorm, they probably haven’t seen much action since reindeer boy.” He frowned. “Hey, is it just me, or is it getting snowier too?”

It was. And colder. Every step Anna took was more painful than the last, every breath she took burned like ice freezing her from the inside. Still, there was nothing for her in the castle. Her true love was out there, in the snowstorm, out in the real world.

She had a goal. All she had to do was make it to Kristoff.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Elsa looked back at the castle, filled with fear – of rejection, of Hans’s plot to kill her, of what the future could possibly hold.

Around her the storm built up, winds tearing through the air, sharp particles of ice replacing the softer snowflakes, temperatures plummeting. She gasped. “Fear!”

“Thank the norns, she’s finally figured it out,” Loki groused. He seemed in quite the foul mood.

Elsa ignored him. It was her fear that fed the storm. She stood at its center and felt the chilly energy of it all, and closed her eyes. She thought of how happy she’d been, practicing her powers with someone who understood them. She thought of Anna at the coronation, about giggling with her over the scent of chocolate. She thought of her advisors who had supported her up until now, and who were loyal to her father and would surely at the very least give her a chance. She thought of Hans, and how he couldn’t touch her now that she knew he was a lying snake.

Slowly, the fear ebbed away, and Elsa knew that the only way through this was to confront her fears, to talk to her sister and her advisors, to make sure Arendelle would be well-cared for, even if she could no longer be the queen who cared for it.

This wasn’t impossible. It would be difficult, true, and she would have a lot to answer for, but it could be done. She could do it.

She opened her eyes. The storm continued unabated, which made no sense. “Loki?”

“Well? You know what the problem was, now fix it!”

She had. Unless it wasn’t her fear that was the issue. “I’m not sure…”

“Of course you are. You’ve allowed your fears to control your power. It’s a pitiful weakness, but it’s surmountable. Just focus.”

“I did, it’s not…” For the first time since they’d escaped the cell, Elsa noticed Loki’s expression. He’d been furious at Hans’s attempted assassination, but he wasn’t angry now. Or, at least, he wasn’t _only_ angry. He still looked very upset, but more nervous than enraged, with an edge of desperation to his anxiousness. “What happened before you rescued me?”

Loki’s full attention returned to her and _there_ was the anger. “None of your business! Pay attention to your own issues.”

Around them, the wind roared louder, and Elsa realized that this was no longer _her_ storm. While the winter was still her doing, this specific storm was not. Loki’s attention returned to the castle, and Elsa saw apprehension fill his eyes again. There was something there, in the castle, that was making Loki, a god if he was to be believed, _afraid_.

“What’s scaring you?” Elsa asked gently. “Can I help?”

“What’s… this is _your_ doing, little witch,” Loki snapped. “Don’t try to pin this on me.”

“But I’m not afraid anymore,” Elsa said. “I don’t think that’s enough to stop the winter, but it should have been enough to stop this storm. If it was mine.”

Loki grabbed her shoulders and shook her, none too gently. “Of course this is your fault! I’m not some uncontrolled child who accidentally killed her own sister with her power.”

A burst of shocked power shot out from Elsa and a bubble of still silence appeared around her and Loki, stopping the storm in a few meters in either direction. Anna? Dead? But… how? When? Why?

Loki wasn’t done. He reached out grabbed her hair, forcing her to her knees. “You ungrateful, treacherous brat! This is how you repay me, you blame your own deficiencies on me? No wonder no one wants you or needs you, you monstrous, cruel thing!” His voice broke on something that nearly sounded like a sob as he gathered a multicoloured ball of energy in his hand and the storm raged around them.

Elsa wasn’t paying him full attention, still shocked at the idea that Anna could be dead, but part of her was gibbering in panic that this was the end, there was nothing reasonable or sane in Loki’s eyes as he stared down at her, full of anger and hatred and deep, deep fear.

There was nothing she could do. If Anna truly was dead at her hand, there was nothing left she _wanted_ to do. Elsa closed her eyes and allowed fate to take its course.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Anna could see the gates as they started to open. The storm made visibility an issue, and keeping her eyes open was almost more effort than she was able to make. She could make out the faint outline of a man on an oddly-shaped horse, galloping through the open gates.

“Wha?”

Olaf jumped up and down and clapped his wooden hands. “It’s Kristoff! Hooray!” He turned to Anna. “Try not to breathe in too deeply when you kiss him, and you probably won’t even notice the smell.”

“Kristoff,” Anna breathed out, filled with unspeakable relief. The storm flared up again with the wind whirling about, tossing Anna to the side. She stumbled, barely keeping her balance as she twisted around, suddenly facing the opposite direction.

A glow caught her eye. It shone with all the colours of the rainbow, rather than the white and blue that made up the snowstorm, but it was predominantly green and extremely out of place. Another freak gust of wind pushed all the falling snow out of Anna’s line of sight and she caught a clear glimpse of Loki looming over Elsa, grasping her by the hair with his other hand filled with a glowing ball of some kind of energy that he seemed poised to striker her with.

It didn’t matter than Loki hadn’t shown any sign of harming anyone since Anna had met him, or that he seemed to care for Elsa in his strange way on the few occasions Anna had seen them together. The sight of him threatening her sister had Anna moving, away from Olaf and Kristoff and everyone who had cared for her and supported her, towards Loki and Elsa.

She didn’t stumble or trip or slide once on the way there. Her frozen muscles felt revitalized with fresh blood pumping through her veins. Her cloak whipped out behind her as she ran full out over the short distance between her sister and herself, only barely making it before Loki struck, taking the full brunt of whatever magic he had aimed at Elsa right in the center of her chest.

And then nothing.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Sven galloped through the gates, towards Elsa and Olaf. Kristoff could see her huddled in the snow, still alive at least. He spurred Sven on, faster.

Then Anna turned and started running in the opposite direction. Kristoff could see Olaf’s confused expression as he bounded past him, but his attention was still on Anna, only now he could also see Loki and Elsa and Anna jumping between them.

It was as if time had slowed. Kristoff could see every detail flash by in slow motion. Loki’s enraged expression, Elsa’s resignation, Anna’s determination. Then Loki’s surprise, Elsa’s horror, and Anna’s desperate last attempt to protect her sister as Loki slammed whatever glowing thing was in his hand into Anna’s chest.

Anna immediately turned to ice. Elsa wrenched herself away from Loki and threw her arms around her sister. “Anna! No…” She looked up at Loki, her eyes narrowing. “What did you do to her?”

“This, also, is your doing,” Loki said much more calmly than Kristoff had expected. “Ask the reindeer boy, the trolls would have told him.”

“My name’s Kristoff,” Kristoff said reflexively, staring at Anna. “And… I think I need to break this curse? With an act of true love?” He slid off Sven and carefully approached Anna and Elsa, more than a little worried at the protective older sister bit.

Loki snorted. “Don’t bother.” Anna’s icy body started cracking and rainbow threads of light shone through the cracks, growing until the ice burst out in an explosion of rainbow energy and Anna collapsed, gasping and panting but alive.

“Anna!” Kristoff, Olaf, and Elsa raced to embrace her at once. She basked in their attention and returned it just as strongly. Loki smiled a little bitterly, unnoticed, reflecting on how similar to she was to Thor in that – the ability to charm and form close connections within days, thoughtlessly giving away love as easily and unashamedly as she accepted it. The smile faded into a scowl; having Thor on Midgard had soured his mood more than a little.

Elsa looked up, her eyes teary. “How did you–”

“Yeah!” Anna interrupted, her expression of hungry curiosity so similar to Elsa’s that they’d never looked more like sisters to Loki. “This was supposed to be broken by an act of true love. You don’t…” She trailed off uncertainly.

Loki immediately shook his head, horrified at the presumption. “Not even a little but! ‘True love’ never entered into it, I just broke the spell from the inside.”

“But weren't you trying to kill Elsa?”

“Nothing so dramatic,” Loki demurred, looking arrogant and not at all like he was covering up a significant amount of embarrassment. “It was merely energy, which has many uses, not all of them destructive. With enough power, there’s no need for finesse, and warming a frozen anything is inherently enthalpic.”

“Inherently what?” Anna muttered mostly to herse, confused. “And does that mean you never meant to hurt Elsa, or did you just change your mind at the last minute or what?”

“Well, then,” Elsa said, speaking over her sister's rambling with a little wry with that edge of mischievousness that occasionally shone through her more-perfect-than-perfect façade. “Stopping this storm shouldn’t be any trouble at all, should it?”

Loki’s anger at Elsa’s accusation that _he_ might be the cause of this uncontrolled storm flared up again, and his expression clouded over. Before he could reply, however, a streak of red and gold rocketed towards them, landing with what Loki considered unneeded pomp, revealing Thor and, in his arms, a rather terrified Hans.

“You!” Anna ground out, her temper flaring the moment she saw Hans, despite the fact that he was huddled on the ground. She pulled away from her sister and her friends, but Thor stood between her and her target, imposing and larger-than-life, as only Thor could be.

“Brother, you must stop this mischief and return home.” Around them, the storm flared up to twice its original strength, bowing over Anna, Kristoff, even Sven. Thor stood in the centre, unconcerned, as did Loki and Elsa. “Father demands it.”

“Does he?” Loki snapped, wind gusting with every word. “And what else did he tell you?”

“You might have hidden yourself from Heimdall, but nothing can hide from the Allfather’s gaze when he sits upon _Hlidskjalf_. He sent me here to bring you back home, so your antics must have exhausted even his patience.”

Unlikely. It was more likely that Odin just wanted to get the confrontation over with, and had no interest in whatever Loki had been doing on Midgard. But it seemed that Thor, still apparently ignorant of his ‘brother’s’ heritage, had no idea about any of that.

Loki turned away. “My life is not a toy for that old man’s whims, Thor. I’m afraid that I won’t come willingly this time.”

“You are being unreasonable!” Thor roared, in part to be heard over the storm, in part out of frustrated anger. “Whatever punishment awaits you cannot be worse than staying on this backwater. Return with me, apologize for whatever you did, and make amends, as you always do.”

“That won’t be enough this time,” Loki said. “How can I make amends for what I _am_ , rather than for what I’ve _done_?”

“…what?”

Anna leaned over to Elsa. “Yeah. What?” Elsa shrugged.

Loki ignored them, his full attention focused on Thor. “We’ve been lied to, Thunderer. You’ve been sent on a fool’s mission to retrieve something that is irretrievable.” He’d caught glimpses of his natural-born form while training with Elsa, most recently when he’d lost his temper with her. It still hurt, watching the blue chase away the familiar pink of his skin, but it was an ache that was slowly becoming less and less painful with every partial transformation.

Even so, as he allowed himself to transform from the lie of his Asgardian form to the dreaded underlying truth that was the form of a Frost Giant, Loki’s anger at Thor and Odin warred with a fear that this wouldn’t be reversible, that he would stick this way, eternally blue and marked by a lineage he loathed.

Still, it was worth it for the look of abject horror in Thor’s eyes.

“Your ‘brother’ doesn’t exist,” Loki said.

And Thor attacked.

It wasn’t entirely unexpected; for as long as Loki had known him, Thor had always chosen action above thought. And, as an Asgardian, the equation was simple – see a Frost Giant, kill a Frost Giant. Thor hadn’t telegraphed his attack in any way, but it still wasn’t a surprise attack, by any measure.

Unfortunately, losing the element of surprise didn’t mean that Thor lost the upper hand. Loki was effectively weaponless while Thor wielded Mjölnir, and was better at combat in any case. Loki had a few advantages, as his body now outright enjoyed the tumultuous storm with its icy winds and penetrating cold, but that didn’t tip the scales nearly as far in his favour as he would have needed to beat Thor in an even match.

Within moments, Loki had fallen back far enough that he’d left the ground and was retreating on the icy fjord. Thor kept pressing him further out over the water and the humans (and snowman) followed them like idiot moths to an unpredictably destructive flame.

That split second of distraction was enough for Thor to pin Loki to the ice, a heavy, warm hand pressed against Loki’s throat in threat. “What have you done to my brother, foul Jötunn?”

Loki laughed, feeling his throat buzz against Thor’s palm. “He didn’t tell you! I suspected he might not have, but I had no idea he’d send you after me without even the slightest hint of what you’d find.” Thor’s grip tightened and Loki’s laughter sputtered into choking.

“Cease your foul diatribe and answer me; what did you do to my brother?”

The ice was comfortable on Loki’s back, and it made the transformation back into his Asgardian form less smooth than he would have wanted. The sensation of the ice melting against his now-warm skin was less comfortable. “I _am_ your brother, you dolt. At least as far as you know. As far as _Odin_ told you.”

Thor’s eyes narrowed. “You would wear his form to mock me?”

“I would go so far as to wear a gown to mock you, Thor, remember?” Loki said, letting his usual smirk adorn his face despite not feeling in the least smirky. “You looked so pretty in your wedding dress, although it was a little dishonest to dress you in white.”

That memory of that adventure was theirs alone, although somehow the Midgardians had recorded a warped version of it, which Loki had found in Elsa’s library. Neither of them had told anyone else, and Thor had ensured that all who saw him clad in the white dress of a virgin bride, save his brother, were very dead.

But Thor didn’t know that this tale had made its odd way to Midgard. As far as he knew, he and Loki were the only living people who knew what had happened. And hearing it from Loki’s lips was enough to cool even Thor’s anger and get him thinking for once. “…Loki?”

Loki pushed Thor off of him (or, rather, Thor let Loki push him aside) and sat up, rubbing his neck. “Honestly, Thor, You jump to the most ridiculous conclusions. Why would a Frost Giant appear out of nowhere and take my place while we’re arguing?”

“Well, why would you take on the form of a Frost Giant while we’re arguing?” Thor returned, his brow furrowing in confusion. “Usually _I_ am the one who has to resort to actions rather than words.”

“True.” Loki raised his hand and let it fade to blue. “You’ve seen me change form before. What’s different about this?”

Thor frowned, focusing on Loki’s hand. When he had something concrete to solve, Thor could be as diligent and thoughtful as anyone. “There is no magic weaving over your hand. In fact, it appears to be…”

“Peeling off the layers?” Loki finished for him. “Indeed. I lived so long with the glamour covering me that I never even noticed it until the Allfather told me before my coming-of-age feast. I was born a Jötunn, Thor. I’m not your real brother.”

“Of course you are,” Thor said reflexively. He took a deep breath and attempted a smile. “Father sent me after you, not to capture and imprison you, but to bring you home. You are still welcome in Asgard, Loki, as you are. After all, Mother and Father knew what you were, and they loved you as their own.”

Loki looked away. “Did they?” There were so many things, small slights that Loki had just shrugged off as being because he was the second son, less martial than Thor, less brilliant, that pointed to Loki’s differences. And they had all been easily explainable and even reasonable. After all, Odin was a paragon of wisdom and strength, Frigga was a paragon of virtue and kindness, and Thor was a paragon of charisma and might. What was Loki? Had he been their son and truly Asgardian, he still would have been the sneaky, vicious magic-user that everyone looked down upon.

But what if he was overlooked and dismissed because he was a Frost Giant, and only from that had grown into a sneaky, vicious young man, using magic because no one could compete with Thor on the battlefield and he wouldn’t have wanted to court another inevitable failure.

Had he been Asgardian, had he been accepted, would he be the Loki he was today? Was everything he was due to his heritage and his parents’ reaction to it?

Thor ignored Loki’s soft question, unaware of the conflict brewing inside him. “Come, brother. We can deal with this in the comfort of our home, with our parents and our friends at our sides.”

“ _Your_ friends,” Loki snapped, sure of this if of nothing else. “They never cared for me.” Thor opened his mouth to protest, but Loki refused to let him. “And, technically, they’re not my parents either! In fact, there’s nothing in Asgard for me at all.”

“Then you’d prefer to stay on this tiny Realm with its primitive people teaching short-lived witches about the magic they’ll never be able to master before their inevitable deaths?”

“Maybe I would!”

“And you’d be most welcome,” Elsa interrupted from about ten paces away, taking both Thor and Loki by surprise, mostly since they’d forgotten about the humans.

Kristoff, standing on the other side of Anna from Elsa, looked just as surprised. “Excuse me? Didn’t Loki _just_ try to kill you with that energy thing?”

Elsa shrugged. “He was angry and afraid and lost his temper.” She gestured idly to the still-frozen fjord. “Things like that happen.”

“And he did save me,” Anna added. “If I can forgive Elsa for lashing out at me and freezing my heart and locking me out of her life agai–ow!” She glared at Kristoff who had elbowed her. “What?” Kristoff jerked his head towards Elsa and Anna nearly deflated as she realized how every one of her words was piercing her sister’s heart. “Ah. I mean… Loki’s fine.”

Thor gave a deep sigh. “I… _appreciate_ your concern. But these are Asgardian matters, and you are mere mortals. You cannot comprehend the vastness and greatness of–”

“And Jötunn matters,” Loki interrupted. “After all, it would be uncouth to continue lying at this point.”

“Father will straighten everything out, Loki. You need to stop being so stubborn.”

“And you need to listen to your brother and stop being so close-minded,” Anna snapped, breaking free of the other humans and waggling a finger in Thor’s face. “This concerns him and you shouldn’t keep shooting him down just because you’re older and you think you know best.”

Loki and Thor stared at her, stunned into silence by her impudence. Kristoff just let his head fall into the palm of his hand and groaned as if used to Anna by now. But Elsa’s attention was on Thor and Loki, as she realized that the reason Anna was so passionate about this was because she saw their relationship as a reflection of her and Elsa’s. She had already intended to make it up to Anna as best she could, starting with opening up to her and trusting her, but watching Thor and Loki rub each other the wrong way after what must be centuries of practice made Elsa more determined than ever to mend what she could between herself and her own sister before it was too late.

“The child isn’t incorrect,” Loki said, shooting a wry glance Elsa’s way as if he could hear her thoughts. “Without any bonds of blood between us, were are merely two individuals caught in a conflict, and therefore starting from an equal point.”

“It’s not bonds of blood that made brotherhood,” Thor insisted. “It’s shared experiences.”

Loki’s eyes flashed in anger. “Then what is my favourite colour, Thor?”

“Ah… green?”

“No. What about my favourite food? My favourite places to read? My favourite horse? Am I an early riser by nature, or a night owl?” He turned to Anna. “Can you answer these questions of your sister?”

“Blue, strawberries, the smaller reading room on the third floor, and Elsa’s not a fan of horseback riding.” Anna thought for a moment. “Oh, and she’s an early riser.”

Loki turned to Elsa.

“Violet, chocolate, Anna prefers to be outside even for reading, and she prefers her mare Ebony over the other horses in general but she’s getting old so Anna mostly uses Firestorm. And she prefers to stay up late, but can function on very little sleep with a good incentive.”

“Well, Thor?” The winds picked up outside Elsa’s little bubble. “Come now, surely you can answer _one_ of my simple questions.”

There was a rumbling sound, deep and all around them, and then the skies opened with a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder, cutting through the unnatural snowstorm with enraged energy. Elsa flinched and her bubble wavered before she got it back under control. “You need to stop this!”

Loki and Thor immediately pointed at each other. “It’s _his_ fault!” Another flash struck the ice between them and they were flung away from each other, Elsa with Loki and Anna and Kristoff with Thor.


	7. Resolution

“What the…” The silence and dimness was almost overwhelming after the interminable sounds of the storm mere moments ago. Elsa tried to blink away the after-effects of the sudden lightning bolt and look around, but there was nothing to see other than Loki and the soft greenish light of a sphere that surrounded them. “Where are we? Anna! What happened to Anna?”

Loki looked like his concentration was focused elsewhere, but he answered her anyway. “Thor will have protected them. He isn’t good for much else, but at the very least he is adept at taking hits for others when needed.”

Thor. The big brother Loki denied was a brother at all. Elsa imagined Anna telling her she was no longer her sister after finding out about her powers, and was surprised at how much the mere _idea_ hurt. “Is that why you told me my parents might have lied to be about my heritage?”

“Talk sense, girl.”

He didn’t remember. “When you were teaching me, and you said I might have troll blood and you insinuated my mother might have…” She trailed off, not sure how to phrase the idea that her mother might have cheated on her father in any tasteful way. “Because magic follows bloodlines, you said. Did you know then that your parents weren’t related to you by blood?”

“Then they’re not my parents,” Loki said, his voice deceptively light. “And, no. I suggested it because magic _does_ follow bloodlines. It doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. But you were also quite right – had you been another’s child, surely your father would have kept you from the throne and placed your sister on it instead.” He couldn’t stop a hint of bitterness for creeping into his tone. He shook his head. “But perhaps we could research your mother’s family line more closely. It’s entirely possible you have witches in your bloodline that have merely kept a lower profile than you managed.”

Elsa smiled. “Thank you.” She shrugged. “I did _try_ to keep it hidden.”

“I know. That was a mistake. Suppressing any significant amount of power almost always leads to serious consequences.”

“Did they try to suppress your powers?” Elsa asked, and Loki immediately closed off. “Sorry.” There was a long moment of silence and Elsa noticed that she could see things floating in the water, lit by the glow of the force sphere Loki had conjured around them. “Do you think–”

Loki looked up, curious as Elsa cut herself off. “What?”

Elsa shifted, uncomfortable with turning the conversation back to herself, but still remembering back to the earlier days of Loki’s teaching. “Do you think I was maybe a little too… _cold_ to Anna when she kept visiting?” Loki’s expression clearly showed that he thought she was foolish for thinking of that now. “I mean, I kept sending her away when she just wanted to spend time with me. I just think that maybe if I’d listened to her more we wouldn’t have gotten into that fight and maybe I wouldn’t have lost control over my powers.”

Loki shook his head. “If not then, then later, with the stresses of rule weighing down on you. Without a natural outlet, some kind of eruption would inevitably happen.” He paused. “That sounded less suggestive in my mind than when spoken aloud.”

Elsa didn’t get it. “I’m just saying that I see now that I probably should have shown my sister the understanding and respect she deserved. And maybe if I do that now, I can repair some of the damage our relationship has taken.” She smiled at Loki. “I just hope she isn’t too proud to accept my offer of reconciliation.”

There was a heavy pause as Loki realized this wasn’t _entirely_ about Elsa and Anna.

He huffed. “You’re not as subtle as you think you are, Your Majesty.”

“And you’re not as inscrutable as you think you are, Your Highness.”

“Fair enough.”

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

“Ow. Ow, ow, ow.” Anna rubbed her head, dazed and faintly amazed at how her headache was her biggest problem when she had nearly frozen to death mere minutes before. “What happened?” She asked, sitting up. The last thing she remembered was Loki and Thor fighting like an old married couple (not that that was creepy or anything) and then a bright flash and then mild pain.

And now she was curled up against Kristoff’s side with Thor looming over them, bodily blocking them from being crushed by what looked like a mountain of jagged slabs of ice.

One of Kristoff’s hands helped support Anna as she sat up, but most of his attention was on Thor. “How are you…”

“Don’t panic,” Thor said, barely sounding winded despite holding up what had to be nearly a ton of ice and snow. “As soon as this settles, I will have us free.”

“And what?” Anna snapped. “Go back to ignoring your brother and closing him off?”

“Maybe not the time, Anna…” Kristoff muttered under his breath.

Anna ignored him. “Do you have any idea how much of a bully you were being, ordering Loki around like that and ignoring every protest he made? You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Thor’s brow furrowed in the first expression of strain he’d shown, and it was purely mental. “Loki has not been faultless either. He ran away on the very night of his coming-of-age feast without a word of explanation. He has hidden himself from Heimdall’s gaze, as he is wont to do when he is up to mischief. He is being difficult and stubborn for no good reason, as he has been since he was a child. His endless need for attention, and his constant use of tricks and pranks to get it, have made it difficult to grow up beside him. And yet I never turned away from him, and I don’t plan on turning away from him now.”

“That’s a good start, but that’s just pushing your own desires onto him,” Anna said. “Can’t you think about what he wants for once?”

“Are we still talking about Thor and Loki here?” Kristoff asked, grunting when Anna elbowed him in the stomach.

“What my brother wants is rarely what is best for anyone, including him,” Thor said. “He tends towards extremes and often ignores the pain and suffering his choices cause others. Our mother has been beside herself since he left and even our father had to concede that enough was enough when he didn’t return after months of hiding. And to find him here, amongst the lowest of the races of the Nine Realms–”

“’Scuse me,” Kristoff interjected. “But wouldn’t that be those Frost Giants? Loki sure thought you’d be more disgusted by that than by us.”

Thor didn’t look at all happy about either what Kristoff had said, or the fact that he’d interrupted. “The Allfather will mend that issue. Once we’re home.”

“Maybe he’d be more willing to come home with you if you were a little _kinder_ about it,” Anna said. “And maybe if you paid him more attention, he wouldn’t have had to resort to pranks. And _maybe_ he’d be a little less annoying if you were a little less closed-off!”

“Yeah…” Kristoff said, shaking his head. “We’re _definitely_ not just talking about Loki and Thor anymore.”

“Oh, hush.” Anna swiped at Kristoff and lost her balance, tipping into his shoulder. “…I meant to do that.”

Thor watched the two mortals right themselves and wondered how long he’d have to hold up this ice before even good manners took a backseat to the annoying ache that was starting to develop in the small of his back.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

“I don’t know the full history between you and your brother,” Elsa said. “But there are some things that are just obvious. You’re younger and overlooked, he’s older and the presumptive heir.”

Loki shook his head. “It’s not that simple. It’s true, but it’s more than just that. Thor is the brightest and greatest Asgardian who ever lived, according to his devotees, outshining even the Allfather. It would be easier if that were untrue, but it’s not. He actually _is_ perfect – for an Asgardian. His faults are that he’s short-tempered and arrogant and acts before he thinks, and none of those faults are flaws in Asgard’s eyes. Meanwhile, I’ve always been too clever for my own good, quick rather than strong, vengeful rather than rage-filled, very much _not_ the perfect Asgardian. Which makes sense, since I never was one in truth. It became a choice of being ignored or being disliked, and I was unwilling to make the choice your sister did.”

“Anna?”

“To be ignored,” Loki elaborated. “I decided that any attention was better than none and made enemies of most of the court, over time. Only the Allfather and Allmother were exempted from my pranks. Even Thor was a victim a time or ten. I always thought that I could trust the people I called my parents, and finding out that they’d lied to me, for my entire life, about the very essence of my being…” He sighed and shook his head. “What I still don’t understand is how they could do this to _Thor_. They raised him, in all ignorance, alongside a Frost Giant. We shared _everything_ as children, even a bed. How could they taint their beloved son with the companionship of a _monster_ …”

Elsa frowned. “A monster? Loki, you’re not a _monster_.” It suddenly made sense, what he was screaming at her before he attacked her with that ball of light wasn’t actually directed at _her_. It was a little odd to Elsa that Loki seemed to see anything of himself reflected in her when she could see the same pain and hurt in his green eyes as Anna had in hers. “I’m sure that finding out you weren’t your parents’ child was unsettling, but it didn’t change you. You’re still that same person you always were.”

“The same person,” Loki scoffed. “The same trickster? The same liesmith? It makes sense how I so easy gravitated towards cowardly and dishonourable tactics, knowing my ancestry. I may be a piss-poor Asgardian, but I am as much the epitome of Jötunn tendencies as Thor is of Asgardian ones.”

“How many Jötnar do you know?” Elsa asked. “I get the feeling that Asgard isn’t too friendly with Jötunheim.”

The look Loki shot her was very unfriendly but, despite being surrounded by his power and then freezing water under a few feet of ice, Elsa didn’t actually feel threatened. “Jötunheim is isolated from the other Nine Realms and Asgard has a general philosophy of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ towards conquered Realms.”

“Conquered?” Elsa said, and Loki’s expression turned even chillier. “Right, nevermind. But basically, everything you know about Jötnar comes from their enemies. Maybe they’re not so bad. _You’re_ not so bad, after all.”

“As an Asgardian, as a _prince_ , I was barely tolerated in Asgard. As a Jötunn, I’d be reviled. No longer would I be Thor’s dark, unwelcome shadow. I’d be a creature, a beast in their eyes. Hated, despised…”

“Just like a witch would be hated and reviled if they were revealed in Arendelle?” Elsa asked.

Loki smiled and inclined his head to acknowledge her hit. “It’s different. You were loved and trusted before your magic was revealed. Anna will support you, you are the rightful queen of this country, and there is no one who can match your strength of magic with strength of arms. You have might, right, and the love of the only person who could be used against you. I have… none of those things.”

“You have Thor.”

Loki shook his head. “You don’t know him. I have him now, while we’re alone together on Midgard in the middle of nowhe–” He cut himself off before he could completely insult Elsa’s nation. “When we return to Asgard he will have his parents, his friends, his followers. He will remember his place, and he will only fight for mine until it’s too much bother.”

Elsa wanted to argue. She had pushed Anna away for years, and yet her sister’s love remained strong. Surely Thor and Loki, who had been together for so much longer, would have even stronger ties.

And yet Loki was right. She didn’t know Thor. And, even after a few months together, she didn’t really know Loki either.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Thor shifted and the ice groaned ominously over their head.

Kristoff instinctively moved towards guarding Anna, and smiled sheepishly up at Thor. “Um, I guess you should probably put that down now. Sorry.” Thor nodded gratefully, glad that someone was attentive enough to give him the cue to move without being rude.

“No, wait!” Anna said, and Thor sighed. He could wait, but it was getting annoying. “What happens when you take Loki back?”

“Can’t we go over this once Thor has put the ice aside?”

Anna shook her head. “I want his answer now.”

Impudent Midgardian. Thor truly disliked visiting the lower Realms. “I have no idea. Had it been simply a matter of Loki running away to spread his mischief to other Realms as he has done in the past, then I would expect either a minor punishment or no consequences at all when we return to Asgard. Loki’s small indiscretions have long been overlooked.” Thor seemed slightly miffed. “Mother and Father both have been very lenient with him in the past. But it seems that he is not to blame for any of this?”

Kristoff and Anna looked at each other and shrugged. “I think it was mostly Elsa,” Anna said. “I mean, I don’t know if Loki was even around when it happened. So, yeah, he’s pretty innocent in all this.”

“Then punishment for his actions is not what awaits Loki. What does await him, however, given what is has been revealed to be…” Thor shrugged. “If what Loki says is true, our parents knew he was a Frost Giant since he was brought to Asgard, and chose to keep that hidden. It has now been revealed, but only to Loki and myself. Nothing need change, but if Father has plans…” He shook his head. “I cannot fathom the mind of the Allfather, no one can. But everything he does is done for a good reason, and for the best of the Nine Realms.”

Anna snorted. “So you’re just going to yank him away from Elsa and drag him off to who-knows-where to face who-knows-what at the hands of someone you can’t even predict. Just thinking that things will be fine doesn’t make them so.”

“Anna…” Kristoff looked stricken, as if hearing Anna say such a thing was against her nature. Which, until Hans (the bastard, Anna decided to place after every thought of his name), would have been true. But Anna wasn’t as blindly optimistic as she once had been after such a deep betrayal.

“Maybe you should think about _why_ Loki seems so reluctant to go away with you, if all he has to face is an indulgent father and no other consequences. Maybe he really has something to fear.”

“Like your sister does,” Kristoff muttered, ruefully rather than cruelly, but Anna slapped him upside the head anyway for bringing it up. Elsa would be fine.

Anna would be by her side. She would make _sure_ Elsa was fine.

Thor looked like he simply didn’t understand. “Loki has nothing to fear. He will have me by his side throughout the whole ordeal.”

“What does that even mean?” Anna asked. “You’re not listening to him _now_ , when it’s just the two of you. How is it going to be when it’s you and Loki and your father and your people? Are you really going to listen to Loki, or are you just going to ignore him and do what you think is right, whether he wants it or not?”

“Loki isn’t… he doesn’t always know…” Thor sighed in exasperation. “Sometimes Loki needs to be ignored and forced into doing what is right.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “And is that why no one told him who and what he was until now?”

“Perhaps!” Thor snapped. “After all, look at what he did when he found out.”

“What, came to Arendelle and spent some time with Elsa? What’s so awful about that?”

The ice shifted as the wind changed direction, and Kristoff came to Thor’s rescue, in more ways that one. “Anna, can he _please_ out that wall of ice down now?”

“Oh, very well.”

Grateful for the chance to put aside his burden, as well as the chance to avoid further questions, Thor shrugged aside the ton of ice and let the freezing wind blow free.

At least the thunder storm seemed to have settled down to a grudging low rumbling and occasional flashes high in the clouds.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

“Do you know what you want to do?” Elsa asked. “There’s still a place for you here if you want one.”

“There are many places in many Realms that would welcome me,” Loki said stiffly. It was true, even if his welcome would only be because of the Allfather’s lies. “I doubt Thor would leave me unharrassed should I choose to remain here.”

Elsa nodded, admitting the truth of that readily enough. “Still, we… _I’d_ fight for you.” She still remembered the way Loki had faced down Hans and his goons for her. Even if Loki had never been at risk of any harm from mere mortals, the gesture was more than enough for Elsa to want to return it. “Even against the God of Thunder.”

Loki huffed a bitter laugh. “And if I were to ask you to do so, I’d deserve to be dragged back to Asgard by my hair.”

“I don’t know,” Elsa said thoughtfully. “I’ve yet to see anything from either you or your brother that makes me think either one of you is _that_ ridiculously overpowered compared to an army.”

Rather than answer that with anything that could sound like a boastful threat, Loki started pushing the bubble holding them underwater up towards the surface. “In any case, I doubt Thor will leave me much of a choice, one way or another. And the last thing I want is for him to leave and return with his friends as back-up.”

Elsa broke open the ice above their heads, clearing the way for their ascent, and winced at the swirling winds and grey skies that greeted them. “Alright. I’ll leave that up to you. I just wanted you to know that you had someone on your side.” Loki let the bubble dissipate around them, exposing them to the still-raging snowstorm. “For now, I think I should be able to handle this.”

“Good.”

“…once you and your brother get your magical influences under control.” Loki opened his mouth to protest, but Elsa cut him off. “Don’t tell me you can’t feel it – this storm has gone from unnatural to divinely chaotic. I might have been able to cause the snow and cold, but the thunder and lightning?”

“That was Thor,” Loki protested.

Elsa shook her head. “It wasn’t _just_ Thor. It got worse when he joined in, but the storm started raging when you broke me out of the dungeons. Things got _worse_ as my control _improved_. Tell me you can’t taste your own power on the wind?”

Loki sighed. “Very well. Once we’ve returned to Asgard, you should be able to return your Realm to its natural state.”

“So you’re leaving then?”

“It would appear so,” Loki said, “one way or another.” He managed a smile that seemed only slightly strained. “On the other hand, just because I’ve been found, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve been caught.”

“Brother!” Thor’s voice roared even over the storm and Loki’s small smile faded into exasperation. Through the snow, Elsa could see flashes of Anna’s colourful dress beside the occasional glimpses of red and gold and grabbed Loki’s hand, dragging him towards their siblings.

Anna’s eyes lit up when Elsa appeared in front of her. “Elsa!” The two sisters hugged. “You’re okay.” She looked over at Loki. “And you’re okay too. Yay.”

“I, too, celebrate your survival,” Loki said dryly before turning to Thor. “I assume they have you to thank for it?”

“I wouldn’t let innocents be hurt due to an argument between us,” Thor said, slightly offended. Loki just shrugged. “It was no great burden.”

“He held up a ton of ice on his back,” Kristoff disagreed, his eyes shining. “Still intact. Do you know how much that would go for in the market if it could be transported like that?”

Loki sighed. “Another worshiper for you, brother.”

“Never mind that,” Thor said, brushing Kristoff off. “We still need to talk about what happens next.”

“I assume you’ll drag me off, something will be done about that brat prince from the south, Elsa and Anna will have to make amends for this accident, and I’ll be punished in some suitably humiliating way for not bowing my head and accepting what was offered to me and embarrassing the great Allfather and Allmother and their perfect son.”

Elsa shook her head, exasperated, but it was Anna who stepped forward. “No chance! Elsa can make some sort of diplomatic edict, or we can hide you here. It worked before, didn’t it?”

Loki looked surprised at the support from Anna. “Not precisely. As long as the Allfather has any interest in me, he will be able to find me, as long as I am in the Nine Realms.”

“So leave the Nine Realms,” Kristoff said simply. Everyone turned to look at him, and he shrugged. “What? If they’re from some other ‘Realm’, then it stands to reason that there is at least the chance of other, even further Realms, populated by a myriad of other peoples. Doesn’t it?”

Thor looked at Loki. “They don’t know?”

“Midgard was always the least advanced and most isolated of the Realms,” Loki said. “But it’s not as simple as that.” He smiled at Kristoff, bright and sharp. “Good thought process, though.”

“Thanks?”

“So you still don’t want to go home?” Thor asked. “You would choose the stars or Midgard over Asgard?”

Loki sighed. “Right now I’d choose a mudhole over Asgard.”

“Then allow me to offer another option,” Thor said. “Come with me.”

“I’m failing to see that as something different.”

“Father ordered me to fetch you from Midgard. But he never ordered me to return you directly home. We can stop and visit Freyr, or drop in on Hogun’s family. Perhaps an adventure in Álfheim or Vanaheim will give you a chance to vent your feelings.”

Loki immediately bristled. “If you’re implying that I can’t control myself now that I’ve been shown to be a Frost Giant–”

“No, Loki,” Thor interrupted. “Just that if you need more time and space, then I can offer that to you, without either of us disobeying the Allfather’s orders.” He grinned, wide and boyish. “After all, he seemed very impatient to see you, as did Mother, but after the lies they’ve told I find it fitting to make them wait.”

A smile crept across Loki’s face, small but sincere and not entirely kind. “Thor, that is the kind of thinking that tends to get me into enormous trouble. I’m proud of you, brother.”

“We’ll weather the storm of Father’s rage together, then,” Thor said, clasping Loki on his shoulder. “It should prove… interesting at the least.”

“And this way, with your interference gone, I think I can bring summer back to Arendelle,” Elsa said.”

Anna perked up. “Really? How? True love?”

Elsa shrugged. “Control and appropriate outlets, combined with self-knowledge and working through issues rather than repressing them.” She smiled and gave Anna a half-hug, wrapping her arm around her shoulders. “Although I think that love and support are certainly going to be a part of that.”

“Aww…” Anna threw her arms around Elsa in a giant hug.

Thor turned to Loki, arms open. “Please?”

“No.”

“Alright.” Thor looked up into the storm instead. “Heimdall! Please take us to Freyr’s palace.”

“To start with,” Loki said. Thor nodded.

“We’ll miss you,” Anna said.

Elsa waved. “Thank you for everything, Loki.”

“And you,” Loki said to both of them before he and Thor were sucked up into a magic rainbow portal.

The storm immediately subsided into a calm winter day and the three humans looked at each other, still a little shaken up.

“What next?” Kristoff asked.

“We should probably get off the fjord before I end the curse,” Elsa said.

“And Hans! I feel the need to punch him,” Anna said. “I’ve wanted to punch several people, but Kristoff keeps stopping me. But Hans has _earned_ it.”

“No arguments,” Kristoff agreed.

They walked towards the castle in an easy, companionable silence, unafraid of what was to come. After all, fearing the future did nothing to help prepare for it.

Besides, any future that involved Hans getting punched was a good one.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Thee years later, Anna and Kristoff were helping to organize a strawberry hunt with the town’s children when the sky opened and a blast of rainbow light shot from the clouds and into the main square. Anna immediately tossed the baskets towards one of the other organizers and ran towards it.

Kristoff sighed and ran after her. There needed to be at least _one_ level head involved if the gods were back.

And, indeed, they were. Elsa and Olaf were already in the square, along with a few of the guardsmen who seemed caught between standing at respectful attention and brandishing their spears at an unknown threat. Loki and Thor ignored the guards with the grace of princes (and nearly invulnerable deities) and simply looked happy to be back.

Until Loki blasted Olaf back a few feet when the snowman tried to get in a hug. Not overly friendly, that guy.

“You came back!” Anna said, clasping her hands in front of her chest. “How did it go? Did you talk to your dad? Were you in trouble?” Her face fell dramatically. “Ooh, is that why it took so long for you to get back? What’s in those bags?”

Thor held up a hand and Anna’s mouth closed with an audible snap. Kristoff reflected that it would be nice to have a skill like that. Or forearms like that. Thor was pretty much awesome.

And patient. He didn’t look at all upset at Anna’s rambling. “We have indeed spoken with the Allfather, and neither Loki nor myself has had any trouble since our last meeting. As for the bags…”

Loki handed Anna one. “Gifts, in return for the hospitality you showed me at my last visit.”

Anna squealed and opened her bag. “You got me… rocks. Rocks?”

“They’re sending stones,” Loki explained. “The largest one is yours. The other six can be given to people you wish to remain in contact with, no matter what distance separates you.”

“That’s _amazing_!” Anna gushed, happy again. “How to they work?”

“I’ll show you later. For now…” Loki handed Kristoff another bag, as well as a strange hybrid blade, some mix between a sword and a scythe. “For the rational one.”

“Kristoff,” Kristoff said, as if correcting a god was ever a good idea. “Th-thanks.” He wasn’t going to ask, he wasn’t going to ask…

Loki smiled and took pity on him. “The blade is enspelled to never go dull, and will not cut through flesh. It will, however, cut through ice as though recently heated.”

“Oh. Wow.” Kristoff had never really gotten a present before, never mind something like this. “Thank you, really, I…” He opened his bag. “…carrots?”

“Never ending bag,” Thor explained, clearly getting the hint that these humans knew nothing about anything. “It will always be fresh and replenish itself instantly. It’s for your steed.”

“Oh, Sven!” He was currently out to pasture, but Kristoff was pretty sure this would keep him happy. “Thanks! And I’m sure he’d thank you too.”

Olaf jumped up and down, clapping his hands. “Ooh, ooh, do Elsa next!”

“Strange little creature,” Loki muttered, before extending his hand and saying something that could be heard, but the mortal minds present refused to listen to. “I understand you tended to lose your arms and nose. And head. That is inconvenient, and your inconvenience creates work for those around you.”

“Yeah.” Olaf drooped. “Sorry, guys.”

Loki waved that aside. “So now your parts will, like Thor’s hammer, return to you at your will.”

“Really?” Olaf asked, gleefully ripping off his nose and tossing it away, only to have it boomerang back and land right back where it started. “Yay!”

“And _now_ Elsa,” Loki said, bringing out the last bag.

Elsa was already shaking her head. “You already gave me so much when you started training me.”

“But it was just a start,” Loki said. “And, in all honesty, I am a poor teacher. But these should help.” He removed three old tomes from the bag, each of them bound in faded leather and clearly well-used. “Magical theory and practical exercises. Also, there are two witches who might be able to further your training, one of which is actually a distant cousin of your mother’s. If you were to offer them the use of these books, they would likely help continue to further your training.”

“Elsa’s already much more controlled,” Anna said. “Now that everyone knows, she uses her magic freely and it doesn’t build up like it used to.”

Loki inclined his head. “If you’re satisfied with that, then so be it.”

“I might be,” Elsa said, looking at the books Loki held. “And I might not be.” Loki grinned at her and held the books out for her to take, which she did, perhaps a little too quickly for a perfectly graceful acceptance. “Thank you.”

“So what happened?” Anna asked.

Loki looked to Thor, who sighed. “We met with Fath – with the Allfather and Allmother. As I expected, there was no anger directed towards Loki, only a desire for reconciliation.” Loki muttered something under his breath and Thor, without looking at him, slapped him upside the head for it. “It was decided to keep Loki’s heritage a secret from the rest of Asgard, as if would prove somewhat embarrassing for the royal family.”

Elsa and Anna had the exact same look on their face, and it wasn’t pleased. “That’s… _awful_ ,” Elsa said.

“It could have been worse,” Loki admitted. “I don’t spend much time in Asgard anymore, as you might expect, but I fill my days with other things.”

“We have gone on many exciting adventures!” Thor said, with slightly forced cheer. “And we have even visited Jötunheim.”

“How was that?” Elsa asked Loki.

Loki shrugged. “Mostly horrible. It’s a desolate land, cold and cruel and empty.”

“Oh.”

“And you?” Loki asked, changing the subject as fast as he could. “How have you fared?”

Elsa smiled. “Arendelle is well. As you said, I wasn’t the only one afraid of my power. Countries that normally might have tried to take advantage of my youth and inexperience think twice before risking my wrath.” She sounded almost dreamy at the end of that, and Loki looked at her almost as if he was proud.

“Kristoff and I are ambassadors!” Anna said, breaking that eerie moment. “It’s a lot of travel, but it’s fun. Speaking of, how do these stones work again?”

Loki launched into an explanation and Kristoff watched as both sisters hung on his every word while Thor looked over them with a fond expression. This seemed like an almost perfect ending. There was only one thing missing.

If Loki was staying, Kristoff needed to find a way to warn the trolls. Because if there was anything Kristoff was leery of, it was a Happy Ending™.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

And now, a special bonus for everyone who made it this far. I've seen several version of "Let It Go" from Loki's point of view, but I feel that Thor deserves a Frozen song too. So here's my version of Thor's version of Anna's snowman song:

[Thor] Do you wanna kill some snowmen?  
Come on, let's get revenge!  
This was supposed to be my special day  
They took all that away  
Father's become unhinged!  
  
We used to be feared by them  
And now we're not  
The Allfather is weak and old!  
Do you wanna kill some Jotnar?  
And maybe some of those frost beast things...  
  
[Loki] No. No, no, no, no, no.  
  
[Thor] Great, let's go...[Turns towards his friends]  
  
Do you wanna klll some snowmen?  
It'll get us all the maids  
We'll be lauded as victorious  
Food will be brought to us  
It'll be great!  
  
And, Sif, we'll show all Asgard  
What women can do  
[Sif] I can do that myself  
[Thor] Fair enough [They ride towards the bifrost]  
  
Heimdall, start the bifrost  
We need to go to Jotunheim  
Their attack embarrassed both of us  
Don't make me make a fuss  
Just let us by

[Heimdall] I'm loyal to king Odin  
Unless I don't want to be  
That's gonna be a theme  
Go on and kill yourself some snowmen

Thanks to everyone for reading this far! It's been fairly silly, but since Disney owns Marvel now I guess it's not that far out of the realm of reason.


End file.
